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LILLY RYDER GRACEY 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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HAND-BOOK OF MISSIONARY 
INFORMATION 



Pre-eminently for use in Young 
Women's Circles 



COMPILED AND EDITED BY 

LILLY RYDER V GRACEY 









CINCINNATI: CRANSTON & CURTS 

NEW YORK: HUNT & EATON 

1893 



h- 






Copyright 
BY CRANSTON & CURTS, 

1893. 

The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



CONTENTS. 

, ♦ 

Page. 

Missions, 5 

Women and Missions, . . 11 

Mission Fields: 

China, 15 

India, 32 

Africa, 48 

South America, 63 

Mexico, 76 

Turkey, 89 

Syria, 98 

Persia, 108 

Burmah, 117 

Siam and Laos, ' 128 

Korea, 138 

Japan, 149 

The Island World, 158 

North American Indians, 169 

Gifts : > 181 

Jim and the Missionary Meeting, 188 

The Giving Alphabet, 193 

Conclusion, 199 

3 



GIST. 



MISSIONS. 

The spirit of Missions is the spirit of our Mas- 
ter— -the very genius of true religion. 

— Dr. Livingstone. 

& ••• & 

If the missionaries sent out by every Protestant 
society be distributed among the 1,000,000,000 of 
the pagan world, there is but one missionary to each 
200,000. 

In the United States there is a gospel minister 
to every 800 people. But two cents of every- dollar 
contributed for benevolence go abroad, and only two 
and one-half per cent of the ministers. 

The total number of Christian workers of all 
kinds in the United States — embracing ordained 
ministers, lay preachers, women workers, and Sun- 
day-school officers and teachers — is 1,218,025; or 
one Christian worker to each forty-eight persons. 
The total number of all authorized workers in the 
foreign field, whether foreign or native, is 37,704; 
or one worker to each 31,322 persons. 

5 



8 Missions. 

zone, the Indians of the American prairies, the Ne- 
groes and Hottentots of Africa, the Papuans oi 
Australia and New Guinea, the savages of Pata- 
gonia and Terra del Fuego, it can summon a crowd 
of witnesses to testify of its power to awaken and 
develop the man where little more than the brute 
had for ages manifested itself. "I myself have 
seen, in different parts of the world," says an En- 
glish traveler, "something of this transforming 
power of Christianity. I have watched it in Eu- 
rope; I have seen it at the Cape of Good Hope; I 
have seen it in Tasmania ; I have seen what Chris- 
tianity had done in the lovely island of New Zea- 
land; I have seen those whose fathers and grand- 
fathers were savage idolaters and ferocious cannibals ; 
I have seen them worshiping the one true God as 
devout and humble Christians, — and where homes 
have been prisons, or have been sunk to a level with 
pens of beasts, I have seen them transformed into 
Christian homes." 

At the beginning of our century, the Bifile could 
be studied by only one-fifth of the earth's popula- 
tion, and now it is translated into languages that 
make it accessible to nine-tenths of the world. Said 
the late Lord Cairns: "We are approaching the 
end of the nineteenth century, and I am bound to 
say that, great as has been our progress in arts, in 
science, in manufacture, in the diffusion of knowl- 
edge and of intercourse during this century, the 
progress of Missions and of missionary enterprise 



Missions. 9 

has not been less. The nineteenth century has been 
emphatically a missionary one." 

The kingdoms of the world are becoming the 
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. "On the 
island of St. Helena," says Dr. Gracey, "as I was 
walking up the street one day, I saw three women 
sitting under an umbrella by a fruit-stand. As I 
passed them I heard them chanting the doxology of 
the English Church, 'Glory be to the Father, and 
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in 
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world with, 
out end. Amen.' It seemed strange to hear that, 
seventeen hundred miles out from any continent; 
but the day is coming when, not only from the 
islands of the sea, but everywhere that man's foot 
has trodden, shall burst forth that glad note of 
praise, ' Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and 
to the Holy Ghost!'" 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
Question. How many people in the world are 
nominally Protestant Christians? 
Answer. About 135,000,000. 
Q. How many of these are in the United States? 
A. Nearly 11,000,000. 

Q. How many in the world are Mohammedans? 
A. About 170,000,000. 
Q. How many are idol-worshipers? 
A. About 875,000,000. 



6 Missions. 

We have one Protestant Christian to each five 
persons; in the foreign field there is one Protestant 
Christian to each 1,566 persons. 

"It is clear," says the London Times, "that 
Missions to foreign lands are at once the most 
beneficent and the most disinterested institutions 
known among men." "Blot out the missionary 
idea," says another exchange, "and you lose the 
key of the Bible. Destroy all other proofs of its 
Divine authorship, save the effect of the gospel on 
the degraded African, South Sea Islander, or the 
Fuegian, and you will need no more convincing 
argument. We want to read the Scriptures to-day 
with the addition of the Acts of the Apostles down 
in Africa, and over in India and China, in Japan, 
in Korea, and Upper Greenland." 

"I was thinking the other day," writes a mission- 
ary, "whether I could find out one single force, act- 
ing for the benefit of the human race, that did not 
come from the Cross — that had not its origin from 
the Cross. I can not find one. Who- discovered 
the interior world of Africa, and set in motion the 
intellect of that people? Who solved the problem 
of preaching liberty to the women of India? Who 
first brought into modern geography the hidden 
land and rivers of China, and opened for the en- 
richment of commerce the greatest empire of the 
East? Who first dared the cannibal regions, and 



Missions. 



converted men whose appetite was for blood? Mis- 



sionaries." 

We may challenge the history of the world to 
produce instances of heroism more exalted or more 
heart-stirring than in many cases of the pioneer mis- 
sionaries to foreign and savage lands. 

■a- ••• **■ 

Every one knows that Missions have made 
trade possible and safe with many people otherwise 
inaccessible ; that, directly or indirectly, they benefit 
the world in many ways. Commerce, science, and 
earthly governments have acknowledged their obli- 
gations to the missionary, and secular testimony is 
seen in the aid given to various branches of knowl- 
edge. "Missionary journals are at the bottom of a 
large part of that multifarious knowledge," says an 
authority, "which permits the present age to call 
itself the age of intelligence." 

On the ground of statistical data, it has been 
calculated that the traffic originated by means of 
mission-work repays tenfold the capital expended. 
Take as an illustration: Among the Kurumans, in 
Africa, where scarcely a pocket-handkerchief or a 
string of beads was bought before mission-work be- 
gan, English goods are now sold every year to the 
value of half a million dollars. 

To the transforming power of Christianity there 
is not a race but what pays its tribute. Out of the 
cannibals of the Pacific, the Eskimos of the frozen 



8 Missions. 

zone, the Indians of the American prairies, the Ne- 
groes and Hottentots of Africa, the Papuans oi 
Australia and New Guinea, the savages of Pata- 
gonia and Terra del Fuego, it can summon a crowd 
of witnesses to testify of its power to awaken and 
develop the man where little more than the brute 
had for ages manifested itself. "I myself have 
seen, in different parts of the world," says an En- 
glish traveler, " something of this transforming 
power of Christianity. I have watched it in Eu- 
rope; I have seen it at the Cape of Good Hope; I 
have seen it in Tasmania; I have seen what Chris- 
tianity had done in the lovely island of New Zea- 
land; I have seen those whose fathers and grand- 
fathers were savage idolaters and ferocious cannibals ; 
I have seen them worshiping the one true God as 
devout and humble Christians, — and where homes 
have been prisons, or have been sunk to a level with 
pens of beasts, I have seen them transformed into 
Christian homes." 

At the beginning of our century, the BiBle could 
be studied by only one-fifth of the earth's popula- 
tion, and now it is translated into languages that 
make it accessible to nine-tenths of the world. Said 
the late Lord Cairns: "We are approaching the 
end of the nineteenth century, and I am bound to 
say that, great as has been our progress in arts, in 
science, in manufacture, in the diffusion of knowl- 
edge and of intercourse during this century, the 
progress of Missions and of missionary enterprise 



Missions. 9 

has not been less. The nineteenth century has been 
emphatically a missionary one." 

The kingdoms of the world are becoming the 
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. "On the 
island of St. Helena," says Dr. Gracey, "as I was 
walking up the street one day, I saw three women 
sitting under an umbrella by a fruit-stand. As I 
passed them I heard them chanting the doxology of 
the English Church, 'Glory be to the Father, and 
to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. As it was in 
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world with- 
out end. Amen.' It seemed strange to hear that, 
seventeen hundred miles out from any continent; 
but the day is coming when, not only from the 
islands of the sea, but everywhere that man's foot 
has trodden, shall burst forth that glad note of 
praise, ' Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and 
to the Holy Ghost!'" 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 
Question. How many people in the world are 
nominally Protestant Christians? 
Answer. About 135,000,000. 
Q. How many of these are in the United States? 
A. Nearly 11,000,000. 

Q. How many in the world are Mohammedans? 
A. About 170,000,000. 
Q. How many are idol-worshipers? 
A. About 875,000,000. 



10 Missions. 

Q. How many either know nothing of Christ, 
or are opposed to him? 

A. About 1,020,000,000, being three-fourths of 
the population of the earth. 

Q. How much money is raised annually in all 
Protestant Christendom for foreign missionary work? 

A. About $10,000,000. 

Q. How soon could the world be evangelized? 

A. Dr. Pierson is authority for saying that "if 
each Protestant Church member would take thirty- 
three human souls as his share, and undertake to 
reach one new soul every day during the average 
life-time of a generation, the whole world would be 
evangelized within that time." 

"A poor Negro slave from Africa had such 
compassion for the heathen, such a desire that He 
who died for the nations might reign over them, 
that in his mind the duty, the privilege, the bless- 
edness of bearing to them the unsearchable riches 
of Christ took precedence of everything else. Some 
one, knowing the old man's love for the heathen, 
asked him how he came to pray for all the world, 
and he replied: 'De Lord Jesus Christ put it in 
my heart. Nobody tell me to pray for all de world. 
De Savior put it in my heart. He came no die for 
one, hit for de whole world; and me mus' pray for de 
world.'" 



WOMEN AND MISSIONS. 



Estimating the heathen population at 850,000,- 
000, at least 425,000,000 are women and girls. We 
14,000,000 Christian women ought to carry the gos- 
pel to 425,000,000 heathen women. 

The severe restrictions of the seraglio, the harem, 
and the zenana forbid a man to approach Eastern 
wives and mothers, even in the capacity of a physi- 
cian; and there are perhaps four hundred million 
women who, if reached at all, must be reached by 
Christian women. 

* + *fr 

There are said to be -300,000,000 Buddhist 
women, with no hope of immortality unless in some 
future transmigration they may be born again as 
men; there are 80,000,000 women who are con- 
fined in Moslem harems, — millions and millions of 
women depending for the gospel upon the Protestant 
missions of the world ! 

The power behind the veil is a mighty one. 
"No race," says Dr. Post, "has ever risen above 
the condition of its women ; nor can it ever do so 
in the history of the world. The boy is father of 
the man, but the woman is the mother of the boy; 

11 



12 Womkn and Missions. 

and she determines the whole social state of the 
generations that are to follow." 

The Earl of Shaftesbury said: "The character 
of the women of a country is of greater importance 
to that country's nobility than the character of the 
men. Direct all the power you have to touch the 
hearts of the women ; and if you can get women to 
take the lead, you will find conversions in all Ori- 
ental countries." 

■a- ••• -t* 

In a company of cultured ladies and gentlemen, 
the question was recently asked: "What event of 
this century is most important and far-reaching in 
its power for good to the human race?" 

Answers followed in quick succession: "Discov- 
eries in medical science;" "New interest in soci- 
ology;" "Explorations in Africa;" "The application 
of electricity to the service of man." When there 
was a pause, a lady said: " The higher education of 
woman, and her service in giving the gospel to the 
secluded women of the world; in a word, the or- 
ganization of Woman's Boards of Missions." The 
company was at first startled by the audacity of the 
thought; but a clear understanding of the field, of 
the nature and scope of the work of women as an 
evangelizing force, easily vindicated her position. 

And the reflex good to us is fascinating. "If 
nothing else had resulted from woman's work in mis- 
sions," Dr. Ellinwood says, " its educational influence 



* 



Women and Missions. 13 

in families, the better impulses with which it has 
enriched and ennobled womankind, the wide-spread 
altruistic spirit which now shows itself in Zenana 
Bands, Christian Endeavor Societies, or among the 
Daughters of the King, would repay a hundred-fold 
all that has been expended." 

The late president of Wellesley College, Mrs. 
Alice Freeman Palmer, said, at a young ladies' mis- 
sionary meeting: "I am so sorry for girls and 
women who have no great, absorbing interest out- 
side of themselves. In studying faces at any social 
gathering, one can hardly fail to be impressed with 
the different expression upon the countenance of 
those who are accustomed to assemble purely for 
pleasure, and those whose lives are dominated by 
any noble purpose. Girls naturally desire to be 
beautiful ; but if the beauty is to be lasting — if at 
forty and sixty they wish to have that certain some- 
thing in their personal presence which makes many 
women of that age so attractive — they must live 
outside of themselves. Self-culture, sought for its 
own sake, will never make a girl winsome. Her 
graces, her accomplishments, her talents of every 
sort, must subserve some higher good to be really 
valuable possessions. This is why an interest in 
foreign missions has such an ennobling effect upon 
a young person's character. It carries thought and 
affection to the farthest limit. Therefore, girls, with 



14 Women and Missions. 

all your getting, get an enthusiasm for this branch 
of Christian work." 

The great uprising of young men and women is 
unprecedented in human history. Bishop Thoburn 
writes: "The world is open to Christian woman as 
it never has been before. She can go almost every- 
where, and she can engage in almost every kind of 
work. She is needed everywhere. She must write ; 
for a literature must be created for the women of 
the East. She must teach; for the convert must 
be trained, and the heathen won. She must evan- 
gelize ; for her feet alone can carry the good tidings 
of peace to her sisters in their seclusion." Dr. Smith 
writes:. "Our colleges and higher seminaries for 
men and women, our theological schools, are multi- 
plying year by year, and are filled to overflowing 
with the choicest youth the sun ever shone upon. 
By the thousands they leave these schools every 
year to enter the paths of duty and services which 
God appoints. Never did such opportunities greet 
the educated and foremost youth of the world. A 
grand service on a wide arena, reaching on to 
vaster and more remote results, to-day awaits our 
noble youth in Turkey and India, in the mightiest 
empires of the Orient, in the vast continent of 
Africa." 



Mission Fields. 



CHINA. 



Win China to Christ, and the most powerful 
stronghold of Satan upon earth will have fallen. 
Win China to Christ, and the prophetic voices heard 
in the sublime vision on Patmos may be quoted, in 
ringing tones of triumph, as fulfilled: "The king- 
doms of the world have become the kingdoms of 
our Lord and of his Christ." —Mr. Wong. 

China is a continent in itself. The great bars 
are gone, and China is open; not the rim of China, 
but China. China is sure to be one of the domi- 
nant world-powers in the future. In working for 
China, w r e are working for all nations and for coming 
ages. — Chauncey Goodrich. 

In his exile at St. Helena, Napoleon passed his 
time in watching with keen interest the current of 
affairs throughout the world, and one of his telling 
observations was: "When China is moved, it will 
change the face of the globe." 

15 



16 Mission Fields. 

In almost any aspect, China presents the greatest 
of all mission fields. With the single exception of 
Africa, it is the greatest in area, being one-third 
larger than all Europe — larger than the United 
States and half a dozen Great Britains combined. 
It is the greatest of all mission fields, and its popu- 
lation numbers 400,000,000. It is greatest in the 
history and character of its people. The history of 
China runs back uninterruptedly over the rise and 
fall of all the great nations of earth — of Rome, 
Greece, Assyria, Israel, Egypt. She was a great 
nation, with settled government and laws, before 
Abraham went out from Ur of the Chaldees. Her 
empire was nearly two thousand years old when 
Isaiah penned his prophecy of her future conversion 
to God; and her people were prosperous a thou- 
sand years before Romulus dreamed of building 
Rome. 

" We boast of 60,000,000 of people," says Bishop 
Warren; "what then must we think of the 400,- 
000,000 population of China — one-third of the hu- 
man race? The country had its singers long before 
David, and thirteen centuries before blind old 
Homer sang. Its history extends over four thou- 
sand years ; nevertheless the country was but in the 
dawn of civilization. The Chinese are a nation of 
poets and rhetoricians. They are comparatively a 
chaste people, and love their children. They are 
generous, and contribute much for religious pur- 
poses. Why, then, do they need Christianity? 



China. 17 

Because every man in China has at least three 
religions, and each two of these is worse than the 
other." 

Look for a moment at the map of China proper. 
It is divided into eighteen provinces. Six of these 
that border on the sea, and one inland province — 
Hupeh — have been longer and better evangelized 
than the remaining eleven. A very large majority, 
therefore, both of existing missionaries and converts, 
are to be found in these seven provinces. "But 
passing from these," says Miss Guinness, "glance 
at the following facts respecting eleven provinces 
and their surpassing need: At a low estimate there 
must be considerably over one hundred and fifty 
millions of souls in the vast cities, busy market- 
towns, and thickly scattered villages of this region. 
To get some slight idea of how unreached these 
millions are, think for the present of cities only — 
the important walled cities, the governing cities of 
each province — where the cultured and ruling classes 
reside. I give them according to the latest statis- 
tics. The province of Kansuh has 77 such cities; 
72 are without any missionary. Shen-si, possessing 
88 such cities, has 86 without a missionary. Shan-si, 
having 119 of these cities, has 92 without a missionary. 
Ho-nan has 105 such cities, and not one of them 
has a missionary. Gan-huei has 58 such cities, and 
50 are still without a missionary. Kiang-si has 74 
such cities, and 63 are yet without a missionary. 

2 



18 Mission Fields. 

The vast province of Szecheran, out of 140 such 
cities, still shows 130 without a missionary. Far-oft 
Yunan, having 89 such cities, has 85 without a 
missionary. Kiver-Chan has 56 such cities, and 54 
are utterly unreached by the true light. Finally, 
the provinces of Hunan and Kwaug-si, with 176 
such cities, have as yet no missionary within their 
borders. Nine hundred and thirteen walled cities 
in these 11 provinces alone, to say nothing of all 
the other large towns and countless villages they 
represent — what a sphere! — 913 cities without a 
single missionary! There is no time to lose, be- 
cause souls are passing out into the darkness con- 
tinually — men and women for whom Christ died, 
and who have never heard his name. Fourteen 
hundred every hour, one million every month, they 
die in China, without God. Think over it! weep 
over it! pray over it!" 

•a ••• & 

"We, in America, are mora than 60,000,000, 
with an evangelical church for every six hundred 
people in the land. In China not one in four hun- 
dred ever heard the name of Christ, or as yet had 
the opportunity of hearing that name. The rate 
given is one worker to every 818,000 souls. Con- 
sider the one province of Chili," says the Missionary 
Herald, "which has nearly the same area as the 
State of Florida, but w T ith a population equal to 
that of all the States east of the Mississippi, with 



China. 19 

the exception of New York, Ohio, and Illinois. 
The weak Protestant missionary force who are in- 
trusted with its evangelization numbers barely forty, 
or one missionary to every 675,000 souls! While 
this appeal is crossing the ocean to you, one and a 
quarter millions more of China's population will 
have sunk into Christless graves; and for each min- 
ute you delay heeding her needs, twenty-four im- 
mortal souls, for whom Christ shed his blood, are 
passing beyond your power to give them aid. The 
cry for help comes from the false creeds and no 
creeds of all classes alike. It is the inarticulate 
wail of infants coming to an untimely end because 
perhaps deformed, or because they are of the female 
sex. It is the sobbing of women, who, suffering as 
a slave or beast, know not the meaning of woman- 
hood. It is the plea of loveless marriage and cruel 
concubinage. It is. the cry of a nation's outcast 
poor, lame, halt, and blind. It is the unspoken and 
undefined longing of myriads of souls, who are feel- 
ing after a higher Being, and striving toward him 
along the road of pilgrimage, idolatry, and asceti- 
cism, that they may escape hell. Out of Asia's 
night comes this cry for the true Light of Asia; and 
that cry is echoed back from the Judean hills, where 
long ago a crucified and ascending Savior, not only 
as his final act stretched out his hands in blessing 
on the earth, but who also blessed the nation with 
a great command and promise: * Go ye, therefore, 
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them 



20 Mission Fields. 

in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost; teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I commanded you ; and lo ! I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world.'" 

About twelve thousand Chinese women, it is 
said, pass away each day, having never heard the 
gospel — without hope, without God. 

We are apt to suppose that the murder of in- 
fant girls in China must now be a thing of the 
past — shamed away by missions and Western civil- 
ization. Unhappily this is not the case. It is af- 
firmed by those who have been long in China that 
at least 200,000 babies are brutally killed, in vari- 
ous ways, every year in that empire to get them 
out of the way. In every large city in China there 
are asylums for the care of orphans, supported and 
conducted by foreigners, which save yearly from 
slaughter tens of thousands of female infants. 

— Messenger. 
** ••• -te 

The moral degradation and spiritual darkness of 
the women in their heathen homes can not be de- 
scribed. Their social and physical condition is also 
distressing, especially in those large districts of the 
empire which have suffered much from rebellion, 
famines, and destructive floods. Dr. Douthwaite 



China. 21 

says: " Men can not reach the women; women must 
do that. I can not speak much about them; but 
let me give you one instance that will show you 
how much they need the elevating influence of the 
gospel. A woman, who afterwards became a Chris- 
tian, told my wife that she had herself, with her 
own hand, destroyed seven female children." "No 
class of people," says another missionary, "ever 
needed the comfort of the gospel more than Chinese 
women, — ground down by hardships and poverty, 
their homes bare and cheerless, their lives barren 
and hopeless, their thoughts and affections warped 
and misdirected". " In China, as in all Oriental 
countries, the idea that woman exists only for the 
convenience of man, and scarcely shares the same 
nature, is thoroughly fixed in the national mind. 
In strict harmony with this historical truth, the 
present religious systems of Asia all give women 
an important but debasing position both in their 
doctrines and their sacred observances. 

A girl, therefore, from her birth, experiences the 
sinister influence of these prevailing ideas, and is 
consequently tormented by a sense of the horror of 
inferiority and comparative worthlessness, and prays 
most earnestly that in the next stage of existence 
she may be a man. When girls are permitted to 
live, it is customary for the father almost entirely to 
ignore them. A father will spare no pains to in- 
sure the happiness of a son, but custom prevents 
his ever showing a daughter any of those attentions 



22 Mission Fields. 

so dear to the heart of a child. In the maritime 
provinces infanticide is practiced to a fearful ex- 
tent among all classes. Heathen fathers and 
mothers love their children; but the necessities of 
the situation, and the corresponding influences of 
heathenism, seem so to^ change and deform their 
moral nature that the systematic commission of the 
crime becomes possible. Almost the only reason 
assigned by the Chinese for destroying their infant 
daughters is, the expense and trouble of raising such 
useless beings. 

When a Chinese girl escapes the perils sur- 
rounding her at birth, she is taught, as soon as her 
age permits, to weave, spin, sew, to cook, and care 
for the younger children. After a few years she 
must be trained for a field-hand or a boat- woman. 
Her lot henceforth is a hard one. She must dig in 
the soil, tug at the oar, or stagger along under 
burdens out of all proportion to her strength. 

If the daughter of a man of wealth, she must 
be trained for a lady. Although she is to be a 
prisoner for life, she must be a well-trained and 
well-dressed prisoner. Destined to a life of idleness, 
or at the best, frivolous occupations, she must be 
taught to bear the curse in strict accordance with 
time-honored customs. The hideous wrong of sell- 
. ing young girls to the highest matrimonial bidder, 
and the sanctioned tyranny wielded over the Chinese 
4 wife by parents-in-law and others, have greatly de- 
graded the Oriental woman. 



China. 23- 

Speaking of foot-binding, a missionary says she 
has often been asked whether the custom of foot- 
binding was not dispensed with in China. Some 
people seem to think that because Christianity has 
made some small headway there, the practice has 
been given up. It is not so. The only women who 
are exempt from it are the Hakka women, and the 
women of the imperial palace who belong to the 
dynasty which at present rules over the country. 
All the rest of the women go upon crippled feet. 
One little child, who belonged to a very good fam- 
ily, was obliged, by being betrothed into another 
rich family, to have her feet bound exceedingly 
small. The mother was a heathen, the father a 
Christian. The mother sent for a woman who was very 
skillful in the matter, and the feet of the poor child 
were bound with a long linen bandage — bound so 
tightly and in such a way that the bones of the feet 
were broken. The poor little child was in an agony 
of pain, and besought her mother to be released; 
but her mother only scolded her. To her father 
the child said: "I am suffering so much; do take 
me up in your arms!" The father took the little 
one up, and she then asked him to pray to Jesus 
that she might go to the ladies' school, where the 
children's feet were unbound. The father did pray 
to Jesus to soothe the agony of his little child ; and 
he tenderly walked up and down the room with her 
in his arms. Presently he felt the child's head fall 
heavily on his shoulder; and when he looked at the 



24 Mission Fikijds. 

little face he saw that the eyes were closed, and that 
the Lord Jesus had taken the little spirit to be with 
him. This is only one case of many. Many chil- 
dren suffer death from this cruel practice. 

A Chinese woman was dying, and a missionary 
tried to reveal a Savior to her fading vision. "But 
not for me," she moaned; "no one would care so 
much for us." Again and again the assurance of 
salvation was repeated, and at last she grasped the 
wondrous truth that the Lord Jesus died for her; 
and then, with one supreme effort, she exclaimed: 
"Why doesn't some one tell the women of my prov- 
ince?" and she was gone. "Ah, no wonder," says 
the missionary; "the remembrance of millions of 
down-trodden women rested like a burden upon her 
newly awakened soul! Shall we feel it less who 
have known so long the sweetness of God's grace? 
Absorbed by the pleasures of life, and even by the 
duties that lie near at hand, we are apt to forget 
the mute appeal of the heathen world." 

There are 29,000,000 idolaters in North China, 
with one missionary to every million. China annu- 
ally gives a sum equal to $300,000,000 for idolatry, 
while the whole world of Protestant Christianity 
gives $12,000,000*a year to extend Christ's kingdom. 



China. 25 

The Mission Field says: " Twenty thousand 
dollars are spent, in a certain month of the year, 
on one temple alone in the Canton province. The 
people burn up and waste on puerile absurdities 
enough money to build twenty universities, with an 
endowment of $10,000,000 each; and to erect one 
hundred thousand chapels, with a seating capacity 
of one hundred millions. Such is the problem that 
has to be solved in China." 

*\> ••• & 

During the past thirty-three years the number 
of Christians has increased eighty-fold; and last 
year Chinese Christians were reported to have given 
$44,000 for the spread of the gospel in their own 
land; and, encouragingly speaking of the women, 
one says: "But the dawn is reaching them in their 
homes — the idol, the amulet, and the written charm 
are fading in their power; and the all-protecting 
wing of Him who has made of one blood all nations 
that dwell upon the face of the earth is gradually 
extending its benign shadow over the dreary, bur- 
dened daughters of the broad East." 

People do not appreciate what staunch Chris- 
tians the majority of converts from heathenism make. 
Scores in China have been persecuted, exiled, cru- 
elly beaten, and partially starved. "I have seen 
men," says Mr. Taylor, of China, "who have lost 



26 Mission Fields. 

their literary degree; men who have been beaten 
openly by the mandarins, and put to shame for 
Christ's sake; men who have lost their property." 
Another man who had abandoned his idols had to 
endure great hardships. His relatives beat him un- 
mercifully; they threatened to take from him his 
house and land, and they said: "If you do not 
give up this Jesus we will kill you." Said he: 
" You can take my house, you can take my land, 
you can take my life, if you will ; but I will never 
give up Christ! I will never give up Christ!" 

The following true story is an illustration of the 
lives of many women in China, and is taken from 
"Pagoda Shadows." The heroine, as we may justly 
call her, says: "I was born at Koi Tau, a village 
in Po Leng. My father Vas a storekeeper, and I 
was the youngest of seven children. When seven 
years old I was betrothed, for two pounds, to a man 
at Nam Leng, a village two miles from my home. 
I had never seen the man, nor any of his family. 
I took nothing from home with me but the tunic 
and trousers I wore. My mother and go-between 
led me to his house, and left me there. I jumped 
up and down, and screamed to go back with my 
mother. My husband's mother told me not to cry, 
for my home was to be with her henceforth, and 
my husband's grandmother carried me on her back 
to please and quiet me; but I kept crying, more or 



China. 27 

less, for years. Indeed, I never really stopped cry- 
ing until I had children of my* own. In the family 
there were my husband's grandmother, grandfather, 
father, mother, uncles, aunts, five brothers, and four 
sisters-in-law. I was told which man was to be my 
husband; and, though he was handsome, I immedi- 
ately disliked him, because he seemed so old to me, 
being nine years older than I. I did not see my 
own mother again for three years, for she was afraid 
I would cry and be discontented if I saw her. 
During the day I spooled the yarn which the older 
ones wove into cloth. At this I worked from day- 
light till dark, only stopping to eat. I had plenty 
to eat, and was whipped only when I nodded over 
my spools. Once a year one of my brothers came 
to see if I was well. He staid but a few minutes 
when he came, because it might make me home- 
sick if he talked much with me. When I was 
eleven years old I went to my father's house and 
staid four months, and did the same each year there- 
after until I was married. All this time I never 
spoke to my betrothed husband, and he only spoke 
to me to tell me something. At fourteen, when his 
mother told me to do so, I became his wife. When 
my husband wanted me to do anything, he said, 
1 Here, you !' and of course I knew he meant me. 
When I was sixteen I had a> little girl, and then 
another, and another. The third I strangled when 
it was born; for I was frightened, and knew I 
should be hated for having so many girls. My hus- 



28 Mission Fi£u)S. 

band was a good-natured man, and he was not very 
hard toward me. In all the forty years I lived with 
him, he beat me only four or five times. There are 
not ten men in a thousand in China who do not 
beat their wives at all. When I was fifty-four my 
husband died, and I spent a great deal of time wor- 
shiping; but I got sick, and had no strength. My 
nephew, who had heard of the true doctrine, used 
to come to see me, and tell me that there was only 
one God, and he was everywhere. Little by little 
I believed what he said. As soon as I believed, I 
destroyed the censers we used in worshiping false 
gods. My sons saw me taking them out of the 
house, and asked me if I was not afraid to do it; 
but I told them that what I had myself set up I could 
myself take down, and they said no more. Then I 
prayed that I might have strength given me to go 
and be baptized; and when the next communion 
season came, I told my nephew I was going with 
him to Swatow. At that time he was the only 
Christian in Po Leng; and his mother and wife 
beat him for worshiping God, and their neighbors 
applauded them. He said I was too weak, and 
must not think of going to Swatow; but I got off 
my bed, and I walked very slowly the whole forty 
miles; and when I got here, the people said a dead 
woman had come. Since then I have been in all 
the Po Leng villages, speaking the gospel; and can 
walk fifteen or twenty miles a day." 



China. 29 

A beautiful story is told of a child in an or- 
phanage somewhere. They were having supper in 
the dining-hall ; and the teacher gave thanks in the 
ordinary way, before the children began their meals, 
saying: "Come, Lord Jesus, and be our Guest to- 
night, and bless the mercies which thou hast pro- 
vided." One little boy looked up, and said: 
"Teacher, you always ask the Lord Jesus to come, 
but he never comes. Will he ever come?" "O 
yes; if you will only hold on in faith, he will be 
sure to come!" "Very well," said the little boy, 
"I will set a chair for him beside me here, to be 
ready when he comes." And so the meal pro- 
ceeded. By and by there came a rap at the door, 
and there was ushered in a poor, half-frozen ap- 
prentice. He was taken to the fire, and his hands 
warmed. Then he was asked to partake of the 
meal; and w T here should he go but to the chair 
which the little boy had provided? And, as he sat 
down there, the little boy looked up, with a light in 
his eye, and said: "Teacher, I see it now! The 
Lord Jesus was not able to come himself, and he 
sent this poor man in his place. Is n't that it?" 

Ay, that is just it! The Lord Jesus isn't able, 
according to his plans for this world, to come per- 
sonally yet among us, but he has sent these Chinese 
and heathen to make appeal in his behalf to us; 
and who among us will set a chair for him? 



30 Mission Fields. 



RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. How far back does Chinese history 
extend ? 

Answer. It extends to 2,500 years B. C. 

Q. When did the Chinese begin to write books? 

A. Probably before they first moved to China 
from the region south of the Caspian Sea. 

Q. What are two of their largest literary works ? 

A. A dictionary, in 5,020 volumes; and the en- 
cyclopedia, in 22,937 volumes. 

Q. What religions have the Chinese? 

A. Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. 

Q. What is the real and one universal religion 
of China? 

A. Ancestral worship. At the ceremonies ob- 
served in this worship, candles and sticks of incense 
are lighted, and cooked rice, meat, and vegetables 
are placed on tables before the ancestral tablets. 

Q. What does the Bible say about future life? 

A. There shall be no night there; and they 
need no candle, neither light of the sun ; for the 
Lord giveth them light; and they shall reign for- 
ever and ever. They shall hunger no more, neither 
thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, 
nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst 
of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them 
unto living fountains of water; and God shall wipe 
away all tears from their eyes. 



China. 31 

Q. Describe the religions. 

A. It is difficult to describe the belief and prac- 
tices of heathen people. But there are two things 
connected with the Chinese religion which make it 
to differ from that of most other pagan nations. 
The Chinese do not offer human sacrifices, nor make 
vice a part of their religion. In the State religion, 
the emperor is the worshiper. He confesses, once a 
year, his sins and the sins of his 400,000,000 people. 
In the worship of Confucius, all the officers, scholars, 
and school-boys have a part. There are 1,560 tem- 
ples dedicated to this sage, and 2,700 pieces of silk, 
and 62,000 pigs, rabbits, sheep, and deer, besides 
fruits and vegetables, are sacrificed annually upon 
their altars. The people generally, and especially 
the women, bow in fear to the many Taoist and 
Buddhist gods. But everybody, from the emperor 
on his throne to the poorest coolie in the empire, 
shares in the precious " ancestral worship;" and the 
most serious charge that can be made against a 
Chinaman is to say that he has given it up. 

Q. What institutions are found in China that 
are exceptional in heathen lands ? 

A. Benevolent institutions ; as, asylums for old 
men; orphan asylums; asylums for foundlings, 
where cast-off girl-babies are cared for, and finally 
sold to the poor for wives. There are also asylums 
for animals, where they are supposed to rise in the 
scale of beings, so as probably to be men in the 
next birth. 



32 Mission Fiexds. 

Q. Give some account of progress made. 

A. Fifty years ago it was a capital offense for a 
Chinese to be a Christian; now the gospel can be 
preached with more liberty than in many parts of 
Europe. Twenty-five years ago there were not, 
perhaps, more than 100 missionaries in China, from 
all societies in Europe and America, all told; and 
not more than 3,000 converts. During that period 
they have increased more than twelve times; and 
there are now nearly 1,400 missionaries, and over 
100,000 Christians — men and women who have 
abandoned idolatry, and serve Christ, and him 
only. 

— j^^^^-* — 



INDIA. 

India has thousands of towns and cities, with a 
population ranging from 5,000 upward, that have 
never had a single missionary. 

Only one Protestant missionary is found to every 
250,000 of the population. Of the entire popula- 
tion — allowing a generation to pass away every third 
of a century — twenty thousand die each day, over 
eight hundred each hour, fifteen every minute, one 
every four seconds, of the year. These, for whom 
Christ died, are born, live, and die, without hope 
in him. 



India. 33 

In Medical Missionary Record, Miss Wilder writes : 
4 'With our present staff of missionaries, we have 
only one worker to every 135,000 of the popula- 
tion. In Kolhapur State alone there are 1,097 vil- 
lages, many of which have a population of several 
.thousand. Preaching thrice daily in three different 
villages, it would take a missionary a whole year to 
proclaim the gospel to the village population of that 
single State, to say nothing of the thousands of vil- 
lages within the bounds of the field. Kutuagiri 
contains a population of at least one million, all 
without a single missionary. Apportion one to every 
50,000, and the field would require twenty mission- 
aries. In adjoining States we have over 2,500,000 
people, humanly speaking, dependent upon three 
missionary families for the ' bread of life.' Within 
the limits of our field there are five large towns, 
varying in population from 8,000 to 24,000 each, 
and unoccupied by. any missionary. One hundred 
and fifty souls are passing into eternity from this 
field every twenty-four hours — dying without Christ. 
Even if we may lawfully say that there are 500,000 
native Christians in India to-day, we have to re- 
member that these are but a five-hundredth part of* 
the 250,000,000 people." 

■» ••• -fc 

In India only one man in 42 and one woman in 
858 can read or write. Only about sixteen per 
cent of the boys and one per cent of the girls, of 
school-age, are in school. —Gospel in all Lands. 

3 



34 Mission Fiklds. 

The Government has prohibited infanticide, yet 
there is a regular system secretly maintained, for the 
purpose of concealing it, which so far baffles detec- 
tion, that there is scarcely a village whose shrine is 
not desecrated by this form of murder. . The author 
of " Women of the Orient" says: "As the result 
of careful inquiry, while in India, I am certain 
that, at the very lowest estimate admissible, fully 
one-third of the girls born among the natives of that 
country are still secretly murdered." 

India has an area as large as that of the United 
States east of the Rocky Mountains. It is calcu- 
lated that its population is about one-fifth of the 
whole human race. The country contains more peo- 
ple than all Africa and South America combined; 
more than all Europe, excluding Russia; nearly ten 
times the population of England. 

India boasts of a literature that dates back a 
thousand years before the revival of letters in mod- 
ern Europe; of sacred books and epic song of an 
antiquity not surpassed by the Pentateuch or the 
Book of Job. The results of its religious and edu- 
cational systems are seen in the ignorance, poverty, 
and wretchedness of the mass of the people. If 
there are a few men in the country whose wealth 
vies with that of the Vanderbilts and Rothschilds, 
it has 40,000,000 so poor as to lie down hungry at 
night on the bare ground. The enterprise of the 



India. 35 

country has been so stifled that the average income 
per individual is less than that of any other civilized 
race. Such is the heathenism in one of the richest 
countries of the world. 

Out of the whole population, w T hich is put at 
250,000,000 in round numbers, not more than five 
or six per cent can read or write. There the over- 
whelming mass of the population are still steeped 
in ignorance, and are living as their forefathers did. 

The city of Calcutta has a student population of 
15,000, and its college men are peers of their Amer- 
ican brethren. From this cultivated class you can 
descend until you find whole villages where no per- 
son can read a word of any language. 

The inhabitants are, without a doubt, the most 
religious people on the earth. From the highest to 
the lowest, all are worshipers. The mosques and 
temples are as numerous in proportion as churches 
are in Christian countries. Everything, even the 
most minute act in the lives of Hindus, is con- 
nected with their religion. Their simplicity and 
earnestness in their religious rites, and their devo- 
tion to their false gods, are a constant reproach to 
infidelity, and the indifference of people who profess 
to believe in and worship the only true God. 

The people are sunken in idolatry. The country 
has 50,000,000 Mohammedans, aud many of the 
gross vices of native society owe their strength to 
the social usages of this part of the population. 



36 Mission Fields. 

The "Orient and Its People" gives some of the 
customs prevalent in India to-day, and says: 

"The first act of Hindus, on awaking in the 
morning, is to pray; and another of the earliest 
duties of the day is to cleanse the teeth, which they 
do with a twig broken from a tree on their way to 
the well. Their religious books contain special in- 
structions as to the kind of twig to be used, its 
length, and the manner of using it. The more rigid 
and scrupulous Brahmins never eat without bathing, 
and all good Hindus bathe at least once a day. 
The morning routine of purification, sacrifice, and 
eating being complete, they set forth on the day's 
business, ready to lie and cheat as the needs of their 
purses may dictate. 

"When Hindus of wealth make calls, they take 
with them as many servants as their means will 
allow. As they approach the house, one of the 
servants runs on in advance, and informs a servant 
of the house that his master is coming. The head- 
servant of the establishment goes into his master's 
presence, and informs him; then returns, and says: 
"The door is open; the master says, 4 Salaam !'"— 
that is, "Peace!" It is a mark of great impolite- 
ness for a visitor to leave before the host signifies 
that the call is long enough. 

"The methods of working and living seem most 
wrong-handed and unnatural. Tailors hold their 
work with their toes; cooks sit on the floor, hold a 
butcher-knife erect in their toes, and, grasping the 



India. 37 

piece of meat with both hands, cut off a beef- 
steak or a mutton-chop. Shoes are never worn in 
the house, and seldom in dry weather; on a long 
journey they are carried under the arm. Children 
are never praised, lest some bad spirit should desire 
their destruction. Helpless baby-girls are often 
ruthlessly murdered; while it would be considered a 
crime to shoot a monkey or kill a cow. 

"Lying is no reproach to a man, only a matter of 
business; perjury and bribery a matter of course. 
Deaths and funerals are the occasion of some pecul- 
iar customs. The Hindu's ambition is to die by the 
river Ganges; and such a history as it has could be 
revealed by no other stream in the wide world. 
Running a course of 1,500 miles, it receives at 
every point the most devout adoration. The touch 
of its waters — the sight of them — is supposed to take 
away all sin. When a man's life is despaired of, he 
is carried on his light bamboo bedstead to the 
Ganges or the nearest sacred river. When the 
river is reached, the bedstead is placed so that the 
feet of the sick person are in the water. When 
the poor fellow is nearly gone, the holy water is 
poured down his throat. After death, the body is 
anointed ; and oil and pitch are poured on a pile of 
wood, and the body burned on it. The next best 
thing to dying in the Gauges is to die with a living 
cow's tail in the hand." 



38 Mission Fiki^ds. 

Said a converted zenana woman to a missionary: 
"I can not believe Christians in America really 
know the position of women in India. Do they 
know that more than two-thirds of Hindu devotees 
to our sacred shrines are women ; and that but for 
our ignorant, superstitious faith in our heathen gods 
and goddesses, these places of pilgrimage would, 
many of them, be left desolate? Do Christians in 
America really know that we are treated as chattels, 
and not as human beings; caged in our houses; 
destined to drag out a weary, aimless life, and die a 
dreary, sunless death? O, can Christians in Amer- 
ica know all this, and not help us?" 

There are 120,000,000 of women in India; and 
it is apparent, says one, that the foundations of 
heathenism are planted in the zenanas, for fully 
one-third of that number are shut in behind their 
walls. If we set ourselves to fathom this zenana 
life, what is it? Try seriously to contemplate our- 
selves within the doomed circle. All day long, and 
every day, for years in and years out, in one room ; 
four bare walls, and nothing more td look at but a 
square patch of sky occasionally. Wiiat should we 
think about? 

Twenty-one million one hundred and sixty-three 
thousand nine hundred and fifty-two women in the 
Northwest provinces alone are in absolute illiteracy; 
in all India there are 111,000,000 of women who 
can neither read nor write. Let no one think that 
there is a lack of latent mental force among them ; 



India. 39 

for it is granted that their intellectual activity is 
very keen, and that it seems to last longer in life 
than that of men. In a few cases, when permitted, 
women have shown great accomplishments and strong 
talents for business. 

The rigors of seclusion fall heaviest upon the 
women of high-caste families. The middle-class are 
accorded more liberty, and are allowed on the streets 
closely veiled. The women of the laboring classes 
perform outdoor work; but never converse with 
men, not even their own relations, in public. Not- 
withstanding all the gloom of their surroundings, 
some rays of joy gladden the Hindu wife's heart, 
and all her love goes out to her husband and her chil- 
dren. Much might truthfully be said in praise of 
the chastity and beauty of the Hindu women. 
11 Even if of the common class, she usually has the 
step and carriage of a princess," says Dr. Hough- 
ton, "and, especially if she be young and vigorous, 
is a beautiful sight to look upon as she comes walk- 
ing down the street, perhaps with a water-jar or a 
basket balanced skillfully upon her head. The 
women of the higher caste are often very beautiful; 
and if to her gentle manners, elegantly formed 
feet and hands, low, sweet voice, were added sym- 
metrical mental and moral culture, the Hindu woman 
would have no equal." 

"When in the presence of her husband, the 
woman must keep her eyes upon her master, and be 
ready to receive his commands. A woman has no 



40 Mission Fields. 

other god than her husband. Though he be aged, 
infirm, a drunkard, or debauchee, she must still re- 
gard him as her god. If he laughs, she must also 
laugh; if he weeps, she must weep; if he sings, she 
must be in ecstasy; she must never eat till he is 
satisfied. If he abstains from food, she must fast; 
and she must abstain from whatever food he dis- 
likes." Under such bondage, is it any wonder that 
there are millions of women to whom the words 
"love" and "home" have no meaning? In health, 
their condition is pitiable; dying, they know noth- 
ing of a bright beyond. "That idea," says Dr. 
Valentine, "of the future, in which the highest 
Christian truth has been wedded to poetry of ex- 
quisite sweetness — 

* There 's nae sorrow there, Jean ; 
There 's neither caiTd nor care, Jean ; ■ 
The day 's aye fair, Jean, 
In the land o' the leal' — 

has never been sung by any sad heart in India." 

With entreaties, said a young Hindu wife to a 
missionary returning to her native land : " You will 
come back to us,' Mem Sahib? Say you will come 
back! O, promise me!" Very earnestly this en- 
treaty fell from her lips, and the pleading look in 
her dark eyes and her caressing gestures gave touch- 
ing power to the soft Urdu words. "But why, 
M'em Sahib, why are you not certain to come back? 
And why do not many ladies come from America to 
teach us? Are not all American people Christians? 



India. 41 

Are they not all rich? Why do not many of them 
come?" "Alas, poor Radi! How could I explain 
to her," says the missionary, "that, of the millions 
of American people, comparatively few were Chris- 
tian except in name; and that even among those 
who do own Christ as their Lord, not one in a hun- 
dred thinks of carrying out his last command?" 
"Promise me one thing, M'em Sahib," said Radi; 
"tell every woman that you see to send out hun- 
dreds of ladies to tell about the Lord Jesus to our 
people. How can we ever know about him unless 
you teach us?" "It was the simple echo of Paul's 
great question floating down the ages, unanswered 
still : ' How shall they believe in Him of whom they 
have not heard?'" 

«* ••• -fr 

"Widows are the greatest sufferers of India," 
says Ramabai, "and their treatment surpasses de- 
scription." How many are there? Over 21,000,- 
000 — more than the entire female population of 
the United States above three years of age. Of 
these, 78,000 are under nine years of age; 207,000 
are under fourteen; and 382,000 are under nine- 
teen. Practically, every Hindu girl of good caste 
is either a wife or a widow before she reaches the 
age of fourteen. In hundreds of thousands of cases 
the child has never known what it is to be a wife. 
It is essential for the honor of the family that it 
should contain no unmarried daughters of mature 
years. When, therefore, a female infant is born, 



42 Mission Fields. 

the first idea in her father's mind is how to find a 
husband for her. She is betrothed in infancy, and 
if the man dies before they are married, she is even 
then regarded as his widow. At his funeral she is 
dragged along, wild with grief, aghast at the indig- 
nities heaped upon her, her eyes full of bitter tears, 
afraid to utter a sound, lest she should receive a 
more heartless treatment. Soon after the party 
reaches the river — near which the cremation takes 
place — the widow is pushed into the water, and 
there she has to remain in her wet clothes until the 
dead body has been burned to ashes. The custom 
is rigidly observed in all seasons and in all circum- 
stances. It matters not whether she is scorched by 
the burning rays of the midday sun of Indian sum- 
mer, or chilled by piercing winds blowing from the 
Himalayas in winter, the widow must be dragged 
with the funeral party in that manner. After- 
wards she is deprived of comforts, and treated with 
contempt and cruelty. Despised, reproached, living 
apart from the family, denied all festivities, she finds 
naught left to her but tears, prayers, sacrifices, fast- 
ings, and servitude to her husband's family. At 
whatever age she is left a widow, though she may 
be a prattling infant, the rules and restrictions are 
none the less severe. She must be content with 
only a very scanty meal once a day, and frequently 
abstain from all food and drink. If a widow be 
the mother of sons, her lot is a little better. Oc- 
casionally she receives a little more humane treat- 



India. 43 

ment if she lives with her own parents; but if she 
has to pass her life under the roof of her father-in- 
laV, she then knows no comfort. She is the slave, 
and knows no alternative, unless she rushes into a 
life of shame, or ends her miseries by suicide. 

In some cases, among the poorer classes, it is not 
necessary that the girl should become a wife in our 
sense of the word. It suffices that she should be 
given in marriage, and go through the ceremony; 
and to that end there is the revolting practice of 
aged Brahmins going about the country, and marry- 
ing, for a pecuniary consideration, female infants, 
whom, in some cases, they never see again. Gray- 
haired men, half-blind and decrepit, will go the 
round of their beat each spring, and go through the 
ceremony of marriage with such infants as are of- 
fered, pocketing their fees, and perhaps never return 
to the child's house. So long as he lives she can 
marry no other man, and when he dies she becomes 
his widoiv for life. 

There are hundreds of thousands of these sad 
beings who have acquiesced in their cruel lot. They 
accept, with a pathetic faith and resignation, the 
priestly explanation which is given to them. They 
penitently believe that they are expiating sins com- 
mitted in a past life, and they humbly trust that 
their purifying sorrows here will win a reward in the 
life to come. Only the Hindu widows know their 
own suffering ; it is impossible for another mortal to 
realize or reveal them. 



44 Mission Fi£U)s. 

The empire of India is the standing miracle of 
modern history. The great results of missionary- 
effort there for the last fifteen years, and especially 
for the last ten years, no statistics can measure. 
The history of the work in its zenanas is the most 
wonderful, interesting, and touching chapter in the 
annals of modern missions. Christianity has abol- 
ished some cruelties, it has stamped out the murder- 
ous work of the dacoits, and it has given a marvel- 
ous uplift to the oppressed women and the toiling, 
half-starved millions of the poorer classes. 

The people have learned something of Chris- 
tianity through various channels, so that non-Chris- 
tian communities, recognizing its excellence and 
power as compared with other religious systems 
about them, are pervaded with the conviction that 
Christianity is destined to become the religion of 
India. There are nearly one hundred colleges and 
three universities that are educating a thousand 
students, and 75,000 educational institutions besides 
that are contributing their force to the intellectual 
activity of the age. The country has a number of 
daily and weekly newspapers in English, and nearly 
one thousand papers in the vernaculars. The Gov- 
ernment has constructed railways, so that the re- 
motest part of the empire is speedily reached. 

Of spiritual progress, such reports as these are 
coming over to us: One denomination reports over 
1,500 converts for the year, in places lying not re- 
mote from each other. Of work among women, in 



India. 45 

one district alone, it reports that there are more 
than three hundred intelligent native Christian 
women, five hundred Christian girls in high-grade 
schools, and nine hundred in schools of all grades. 
In various stations there are altogether more than 
ten thousand women who are receiving instruction. 
Another denomination sends word that, within 
six months, sixty thousand people have turned from 
idols in Tinnevelly and the Telugu country. In 
connection with this latter fact it is interesting to 
recall to mind the origin of the Telugu Mission, 
which is one of the most successful in the world. 
Its beginning can be traced to the act of a young 
Sunday-school teacher, a poor seamstress, who one 
day gave a rough street-boy a shilling to go to Sun- 
day-school. The boy — Amos Sutton — was con- 
verted, became a missionary to India, and was the 
means of leading the Baptists of America to begin 
the Telugu Mission. 

•» ••• & 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What is the area of India? 

Answer. One million four hundred and twenty- 
five thousand seven hundred and twenty-three square 
miles. 

Q. What are the five principal mountain ranges? 

A. The Himalayas, along the northern border, 
29,000 feet at the highest point; the Sulaiman 



46 Mission FiBivDS. 

Mountains, between Hindustan and Afghanistan, on 
the northwest; the Vindhyas, extending east and 
west, between Hindustan and the Deccan; and the 
Eastern and Western Ghauts, running north and 
south, on each side of the Deccan. 

Q. What are the principal rivers? 

A. The Indus, 1,800 miles long, and the Brahma- 
putra about the same length ; the Ganges, 1,500 
miles long, and five or six smaller streams. 

Q. What are the principal occupations of the 
people ? 

A. More than two-thirds follow agriculture; all 
the useful arts and trades are carried on with rude 
appliances and little ingenuity. The introduction 
of English manufactures has nearly destroyed the 
production of fine textile and metallic work, for 
which India was once famous. Priests, beggars, 
and jugglers are numerous. Nearly all occupations 
are regulated among the Brahmins by caste. 

Q. What religions prevail? 

A. The aborigines practice a modified form of a 
primitive devil-worship; about 187,000,000 are Hin- 
dus; nearly 3,500,000 are Buddhists; 50,000,000 
are Mohammedans; about 100,000 Parsees are Zoro- 
astrians; there are also Jews, Sikhs, and Jains, and 
some other smaller sects; 1,862,634 are Christians — 
of whom over 600,000 are natives, and 600,000 are 
Protestant Christians. 

Q. How many gods have the Hindus? 

A. Three hundred and thirty millions. 



India. 47 

Q. What is the style of the houses? 

A. The typical Hindu family house is built in 
the form of a quadrangle, with an open court-yard 
in the center. The men have their apartments and 
the women theirs. In the court is often some tree. 
Such a tree by its surroundings is shielded from the 
fury of the dust-storms, and is carefully watered and 
cherished by the inhabitants of the house. When 
the natives read in the Psalms, (< I am like a green 
olive-tree in the house of God," they well under- 
stand how secure in God's favor is that man; they 
know how beloved he is of God. 

Q. Do any of the habits of the people illustrate 
customs spoken of in the Bible? 

A. In the lives of the people are seen many il- 
lustrations of the customs alluded to in the Bible. 
No illustration could more forcibly impress the 
mind of a Hindu that the destruction of Jerusalem 
was to be sudden and terrible than the prophecy: 
"Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one 
shall be taken, and the other left." The flour is 
ground daily by the women of the family. The 
women rise early in the morning to grind during 
the cool of the day, as it is hard, heavy work. If 
there is but one woman in the family, she must 
grind the flour; if there are two women, they sit 
down on either side of the mill-stones, each turning 
the handle with the right hand, and each putting 
in the wheat with the left hand. Were they sud- 
denly alarmed, their chances of escape w T ould be 



48 Mission Fields. 

equal; but Christ prophesied that, in the day of 
terror, one should be taken and the other left. 

Every evening, as the poor women go to the 
wells to draw water, one is reminded of Abraham's 
servant, who, with his camels, rested by the well, 
so that at evening time, when the women came out 
to draw water, he might see the maids, and choose a 
wife for his master's son. 

The command, " Loose thy shoe from off thy 
foot, for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
ground," is followed every day by the Mohammed- 
ans. A devout Mohammedan, wherever he is or 
whatever his business, at the setting of the sun 
takes off his turban, or cotton shawl, and spreads it 
on the ground. That spot has become holy ground. 
He takes off his shoes, washes his feet; then, step- 
ping on the consecrated place, and, bowing to the 
West towards Mecca, prays. 

AFRICA. 

The United States include a population of 60,- 
000,000 souls; Africa has more than three to every 
one of these. One man out of every seven on the 
globe dwells in Africa. 

Into the heart of the Dark Continent plunged 
Henry M. Stanley. When he came out, it was to 



Africa. 49 

declare the fact that 40,000,000 of people were to 
confront the Christian Church. —Dr. Ashmore. 

There are 192,000,000 people living on the 
Dark Continent, of whom it is said that only 2,000,- 
000 have ever heard the gospel. 

South of the great African Sahara there is a 
stretch of 4,000 miles without a single missionary 
amongst the multitudes of people to be found in the 
villages and great cities. 

Think of the 90,000,000 in the Soudan region 
without a single evangelical witness, and the 40,- 
000,000 in the Central African lake districts sitting 
in heathen darkness ! —Dr. Pierson. 

•$* ••• & 

When Stanley made his memorable journey of 
999 days across the continent of Africa, in the 
course of 7,000 miles he never saw the face of a 
Christian, nor of a man who had had an opportunity 
to become one. 

& ••• * 

What Columbus and Vespucius did for Amer- 
ica in the sixteenth century, Livingstone and Stanley 
have done for Africa in the nineteenth. A new 

4 



50 Mission Fields. 

world is opened to us, with an area equal to North 
America and Europe combined. And this world 
has, for eighteen hundred years, been allowed to sit 
in darkness and the shadow of death! Think of 
200,000,000 of human beings, even now compact 
together, and never having heard of the love of 
God! Has not Africa, at this time, the strongest 
possible claim upon the energies of the Christian 
Church? — Mrs. Guinness. 

$1- ••• te 

The first convert in the Upper Congo Valley 
was baptized recently, and the valley contains 30,„ 
000,000 people. All things being considered, the 
Congo Valley is said to afford the grandest oppor- 
tunity for fresh missionary enterprise which the 
world has to offer to-day. 

•» ••• 4* 

As an illustration of the vastness of Africa, it 
is stated: "Connecticut has 4,700 square miles, 
Dakota and Japan are each forty-seven times larger, 
India is ten times larger than Japan, China is nearly 
three times larger than India, and yet out of Africa 
you might construct China and two Indias. In 
Northern Africa, Morocco is equal to five times the 
size of England, while Algeria is three times its size. 
Tripoli is a province several times as large as Eng- 
land. The number of missionaries in North Africa 
is few compared to its vast extent and population. 



Africa. 51 

Little groups of workers are to be found, two or 
three hundred miles apart, in a line from east to 
west, from Tunis to Tangier ; but farther south 
there are none for from 1,200 to 2,000 miles. In 
between these groups are large stretches of country, 
with millions of souls, who have never yet heard the 
gospel. Tripoli is at present without a witness for 
Christ, to tell its 1,200,000 souls of his atonement. 
In Tunis, among 2,000,000 Moslems, there are but 
half a dozen missionaries. In Algeria the popula- 
tion is increasing at the rate of nearly 100,000 a 
year, and is now nearly 4,000,000. About 3,300,- 
000 of these are Mohammedans, among whom are 
laboring but twoscore missionaries. Morocco is the 
most populous country in North Africa, and is esti- 
mated to contain from six to eight millions of peo- 
ple, among whom less than twenty missionaries are 
working. The Sahara has a population of probably 
2,000,000 or 3,000,000, and no missionaries are 
among the Sahariens at present. 

' 'In Algeria alone, if missionaries were planted 
ten miles apart, 1,500 would be needed; and this 
would give each a parish of 100 square miles, with 
a population of over 2,000 people. It will be seen 
that fifty missionaries for the whole of North Africa 
is entirely insufficient, both for area and population. 
Again, out of these 16,000,000 Moslems, probably 
about 33 per 1,000 die every year, or 528,000 souls 
annually — 10,000 every week. . . . With all 
our facilities at home, to how many different per- 



52 Mission Fields. 

sons does an ordinary minister preach in the course 
of a year? Suppose his congregation to number 
about 500 persons. He gets the same persons Sun- 
day after Sunday, and in the year possibly does not 
reach more than 2,500 souls. Suppose each of the 
fifty missionaries to reach 5,000 Mohammedans, they 
would still only reach 250,000, or one out of sixty- 
four of the population. Count them, as they hurry 
past — sixty-three who have not heard, and one 
who has!" 

The extreme northern part of Africa was, in 
ancient times, the seat of civilization and great po- 
litical power ; but the most of it has relapsed into a 
state of semi-civilization. 

The extreme southern portion possesses a good 
state of civilization, because the great majority ol 
the people are colonists from Great Britain or 
Europe. 

The central portion, stretching across the conti- 
nent, with the exception of small portions of the 
coast territory, is peopled chiefly by heathen, many 
of whom are very superstitious and degraded. 

In the center, on both sides of the Congo River, 
stretching from the Atlantic Ocean nearly to the 
Indian Ocean, is the Congo Free State. 

The population of the entire continent is esti- 
mated at 200,000,000. The Arabs predominate in 
the north, the Negroes in the center, and the Hot- 



Africa. 53 

ten tots in South. Central Africa. The religion of 
the majority of the natives in North Africa, and in 
the central part to a great extent, is Mohammedan- 
ism. The lowest form of religion, called Fetichism, 
is believed in and practiced by the people of South 
Central Africa. Polygamy is allowed both by Mo- 
hammedans and pagans, and is generally practiced 
by all the native tribes of Africa ; and the wives are 
generally the principal means of support for men 
and children. 

Everywhere and always, heathenism means for 
women degradation and humiliation, although it 
takes different forms in India, China, Turkey, and 
Africa. " Her lot in Africa," says ' ' Woman's Work 
for Woman," "is perhaps not so hard as in some 
other lands. The struggle for the necessities of life 
is less sharp, and pangs of hunger are less often 
felt, than in parts of Asia. She is not confined like 
a prisoner for life in a zenana or harem, but has 
the fullest liberty to go and come; and does come 
to hear the gospel as freely as the men. But in 
other respects her lot is a hard one, and ought to 
appeal powerfully to the sympathies of sisters in 
Christian lands. Take a very common sight in 
Africa : On a forest path you meet a family return- 
ing home from the plantation ; in advance stalks 
the man, a stalwart fellow, carrying a gun; next 
come the women, panting and staggering under the 



54 Mission Fields. 

loads they carry, looking like pack-mules rather than 
women. You say to the man : ' Why do you make 
your wives carry such heavy loads?' In surprise, 
he answers: 'Why, they are my women!' 'I know 
they are,' you reply ; ' but why do n't you carry the 
baskets?' ' Me? I 'm a man !' It is the work of the 
women to carry the loads. 

"And -so women are the burden-bearers, and 
they age rapidly under it. As a rule, youth is past 
at twenty-five; and at thirty or forty a woman looks 
sixty or seventy." 

When the missionary steamer was to be placed 
on Lake Nyassa, the leader of the expedition ap- 
plied to the chief of the tribe for reliable help to 
carry the craft around the cataract. The chief re- 
sponded by sending eight hundred women — a com- 
pliment at least to the trustworthiness of the sex, if 
nothing more. Some of them came fifty miles, 
bringing their provisions with them. These women 
were intrusted with the whole, when, if a single 
portion of the steamer had been lost, the whole scheme 
would have failed. They carried it in two hundred 
and fifty loads, in five days, and under a tropical 
sun, seventy-five miles, to an elevation of eighteen 
hundred feet, and not a nail or screw was lost. 
They received for their wages six yards of calico, 
and as a gift were given one extra yard. 

"Every now and then," says a missionary, " one 
comes unexpectedly on some of the horrid customs 
of heathenism. A short time ago a woman died, 



Africa. 55 

leaving a baby a week or two old. The poor little 
thing was put to the dead mother's breast, and then 
buried alive with her. This is a Sechuana custom, 
practiced to this day." Of the custom of making 
human sacrifices, Bishop Crowther told what he had 
seen of them. "We walked," he said, "to visit 
two mausoleums — the first being in honor of a rich 
man, and the other of a rich woman. A horrible 
sight met our view. There in the house lay the 
skeleton of a woman. The body was in a sitting 
posture. It was a depressing sight. The gloomy 
and damp surroundings, the stillness around, and 
the sad object before us, directed our minds to the 
prayer, i Lord, have respect to thy covenant, for the 
dark places of the earth are full of the habitations 
of cruelty.' This woman was a human sacrifice, of- 
fered to the dead rich woman." 

Another glimpse of heathenism he gives in the 
proceedings of a burial: "When the grave was dug, 
two female slaves were taken, whose limbs were 
smashed with clubs. Being unable to stir, they 
were let down into the grave, yet alive, on a mat, 
on which the corpse of the mistress was laid, and 
screened from sight for a time. Two other female 
slaves were laid hold on, and dressed up with 
clothes and coral beads. They were paraded about 
the town, to show the public the servants of the 
rich dead mistress, whom they would attend in the 
world of spirits. This was done for two days, when 
the unfortunate victims were taken to the edge of 



56 Mission Fields. 

the grave, and their limbs were smashed with clubs, 
and their bodies laid on the corpse of the mistress, 
and covered up with earth while yet alive." Can 
there be any doubt of the urgent need of sending 
Christian teachers among this poor people? 

Of other inhuman customs and atrocities per- 
petrated, a secular paper states that where prisons 
exist, they are horrible, and the way the prisoners 
are manacled and chained together with rough iron 
collars is dreadful. The "bastinado" and flogging 
are common punishments. Even women are sub- 
jected to it, the law providing that when a female 
is to be bastinadoed, she must be seated in a basket, 
with only her feet exposed; the punishment in- 
flicted must be of a light character; but the pashas 
pay little attention to the law, and women are some- 
times thrown down on their faces, and mercilessly 
flogged. Theft is punished in a barbarous manner, 
the right hand being chopped off, and the mutilated 
limb dipped in pitch or tar to cauterize it and stop 
bleeding. 

Slavery is as rampant as ever, and broods like 
a curse over the continent. "I am not alone," 
writes one, "in thinking that in this wretched traffic 
in human life there are horrors sufficient to cause 
the most devout to question the existence of mercy. 
It seems cruel that men should be begotten and 
should live with hearts as cold as winter's icy wind, 



Africa. 57 

and just as pitiless ; and whose malignant oppression 
shows, in the saddest form, the dismal truth of 
1 man's inhumanity to man/ Hard it would be to 
show the slave that his life was anything beyond 
that of a beast." 

A strong young man brings forty yards of calico ; 
a young, unmarried girl, fifty-six yards of calico; 
a young mother, thirty-six yards of calico; an 
elderly man or woman, four yards of calico; a tooth- 
less old man, two yards. 

It is no uncommon thing to see dense throngs of 
unhappy wretches, chained together, with open and 
undressed wounds on their shoulders, stand waiting 
to be sold ; while here, there, and everywhere, keen- 
eyed Arabs jostle each other in their eager bargain- 
making. Now and again an overdriven prize sinks 
where he or she stands, and expires through weak- 
ness or fever incurred during the long and fearful 
marches across deserts and swamps; while at fre- 
quent intervals a sob or wail can be heard, coming 
straight from the heart of some one whose powers 
of endurance have given away. 

To prevent escape, the strongest and most vigor- 
ous men have their hands tied, and sometimes their 
feet in such fashion that walking becomes a torture 
to them ; and on their necks are placed yokes which 
attach several of them together. In this way they 
are made to walk all day, bearing heavy loads, and 
at night-fall a few handfuls of raw rice are thrown 
to them. A few days of their hardships begin to 



58 Mission Fields. 

tell even on the strongest. The weakest soon suc- 
cumb, and the weakest are naturally among the 
women. But terror sometimes nerves even a weak 
frame to almost superhuman efforts; and the Arab 
slave-driver adopts a summary method of striking 
terror into the hearts of the laggards. The conduct- 
ors, armed with a wooden bar, approach those who 
appear to be most exhausted, and deal them a ter- 
rible blow on the nape of the neck. The unfortu- 
nate victims utter a cry, and fall to the ground in 
the convulsions of death. The terrified troop imme- 
diately resumes its march. 

"The women? I can hardly trust myself to 
think or speak of them," says Mr. Stevenson, in his 
last essay on " The Arab in Central Africa." "They 
were fastened to chains, or thick bark of ropes; 
very many, in addition to their heavy weight of 
grain or ivory, carried little babies, dear to their 
hearts as a white woman's to hers. The double bur- 
den w T as almost too much; and still they struggled 
wearily on, knowing too well that when they showed 
signs of fatigue, not the slaver's ivory, but the living 
child, would be torn from them, and thrown aside 
to die. One poor old woman I could not help no- 
ticing. She was carrying a big boy, who should 
have been walking; but whose thin, weak legs had 
evidently given way. She was tottering already; 
it was the supreme effort of a mother's love, and all 
in vain; for the child, easily recognizable, was 
brought into camp, a couple of hours later, by a 



Africa. 59 

hunter, who had found him on the path. We had 
him cared for; but his poor mother never knew. 
Already death had been freeing the captives. We 
could not help shuddering as, in the darkness, we 
heard the howl of hyenas along the track, and real- 
ized only too fully the reason why." 

"I was often permitted to see human harvests 
of slaves," says Mr. Stanley, "and such slaves as 
they were! They were females and young children. 
Every second, during which I regarded them, the 
clink of fetters and chains struck upon my ears. My 
eyes caught sight of that continual lifting of the 
hand to ease the neck in the collar, or as it displayed 
a manacle exposed through a muscle being irritated 
by the weight or want of fitness. My nerves were 
offended with the rancid effluvium of the unwashed 
herds within that human kennel, and I was annoyed 
by the vitiated atmosphere." 

To-day there are thirty-four missionary societies 
at work in Africa. Of David Livingstone and his 
labors, Mr. Stanley eloquently says: "In 1871 I 
went to him as prejudiced as the biggest atheist. I 
was there, away from a worldly world. I saw this 
solitary old man there, and asked myself, Why on 
earth does he stop here? For months after we met, 
I found myself listening to him, and wondering at 
the old man carrying out all that was said in the 
Bible. Little by little his sympathy for others be*- 



60 Mission Fields. 

came contagious; mine was aroused. Seeing his 
piety, his gentleness, his zeal, his earnestness, and 
how quietly he went about his business, I was con- 
verted by him, although he had not tried to do it." 

"Many times in traveling," writes a missionary, 
"I have heard, in the evening, hymns rising up 
from the mountain-side, beautifully sung; and I 
have ridden over to hear whence they came, and 
have come to a kraal, and there were the people 
sitting together, not knowing that any white man 
was near, and I have found them earnestly praying 
and singing. An African Christian woman said to 
me, one time : l The Jesus, of whom you speak, is 
no stranger to me, although I have never heard his 
name before. He is so like the Friend I have long 
felt I needed.'" 

Passing through the country, and stopping at a 
mission-school, a traveler says he was struck with 
the holy, happy influence of the place. It was 
touching in the extreme, he says, to hear the chil- 
dren, one after another, plead with God that they 
might have the talent of language given to them, so 
that they might erelong be able to tell the natives 
of Jesus and his love. 

In one of the missionary settlements in South 
Africa the converts are accustomed to seek retire- 
ment and opportunity for prayer in a thick clump 
of bushes. It has become a common practice among 
them, when either of their number does anything 
inconsistent with his profession, to say: "O, he has 



Africa. 61 

not been to the bush!" It is readily seen that just 
in proportion as the path from the hut to the bush 
is well trodden, so great is the power over the weak- 
nesses of human nature. 

Africa's night draws to a close, but the mists are 
still low; yet here and there do we discern the rays 
of the coming morn. 

" At all hours of the day," writes a missionary, 
"you may hear Baralong men and women singing 
the songs of Zion. Women and children, as they 
bring water from the Molopo, sing the hymn, 
'Shall we gather at the river V and men, journey- 
ing about the country in their bullock-wagons, may 
be heard singing, ' 0, think of the home over there !' 
Surely, 

' Out of the shadows of night, 
The world breaks out into light ; 
It is daybreak everywhere.' " 

* ••• * 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. " 

Question. What are we told in the tenth chapter 
of Genesis? 

Answer. That Africa fell to the share of Ham 
and his sons. 

Q. Where are Africans mentioned in the Bible? 

A. The man whom Philip met and baptized was 
a man of Ethiopia. In the Psalms, David says: 
" Ethiopia shall stretch out her' hands unto God." 



62 Mission Fields. 

Speaking of our Lord's toilsome walk to Golgotha, 
Matthew says: " As they came out, they found a 
man of Cyrene, Simon by name; him they com- 
pelled to bear his cross." Cyrene was at that time 
an important place in Northern Africa. Simon was 
probably either a Greek and a Jewish proselyte, or 
the son of Jewish parents and born in Cyrene. 
The Apollos mentioned in the Acts was said to be 
"a Jew from Alexandria," in Egypt; while Egypt 
recalls a host of incidents, and the story of Joseph 
and of the cruel bondage of the Israelites. 

Q. Why is it so difficult to explore this 
country?. 

A. The chief difficulties arise from its deadly 
climate and its savage inhabitants. 

Q. What more can be told of this country? 

A. It is two and a half times greater than North 
and South America combined, and its gold and 
silver mines are exhaustless. 

Q. Is Africa a beautiful land? 

A. Its immense trees are clad in emerald green 
the entire year ; there are beautiful flowers, majestic 
rivers and lakes. 

Q. What religion has spread over part of the 
northern and eastern coast of Africa? 

A. Mohammedanism. 

Q. What are the mass of the people? 

A. Debased heathens, believing that all sickness, 
accidents, or death are caused by witches, who are 
human beings inhabited by an evil spirit. 



South America. 63 

Q. What do the huts of the natives look like? 

A. Hay-stacks, covered with grass, with a hole 
in one side large enough to crawl in on hands and 
knees. 

Q. What has been done for the improvement of 
the African? 

A. The Bible has been translated into many of 
their languages; about two thousand missionaries 
are at work among them ; and in noting the facil- 
ities now afforded to commerce and mission- work, it 
should never be forgotten that Protestant mission- 
aries gave to both the first impulse. 



■•*~&t&*^*^* 



SOUTH AMERICA. 

There are vast spaces in Africa without a single 
Christian missionary. So there ale in South and 
Central America. — Dk. Person. 

"Into the heart of Africa, throughout the Chi- 
nese Empire, over the sacred hills of Syria, across 
the plains of Persia, and among the millions of 
India, send the gospel; but do not forget the neigh- 
boriug South American lands. A Christian litera- 
ture must be given to these people; Christian 
preachers and teachers must be provided." 



64 Mission Fields. 

There are no people in the world more entirely 
neglected and unknown than the Indians of South 
America. To every one who has a heart to labor 
and a will to choose, South America says to-day: 
" Study my needs, my future, and then weigh my 
call; my destiny rests on your shoulder." 

* + * ^ 

The West Coast of South America has 12,000,- 
000 of people whose religion is a degraded form of 
Romanism. 

•3* ••• -te 

Throughout all the valley of the Amazon, 
which extends in length 3,300 miles, there is not to 
be found an evangelical missionary; and it is stated 
that the gospel has never been preached in all that 
territory. There are 12,000,000 of souls in Brazil 
who are almost without any true knowledge of the 
gospel, and on its plains there are a million of 
wild Indians ignored as yet by the Christian world. 

The Republic of Venezuela has a -population of 
2,121,988. There is no Protestant mission-work, 
yet the Government tolerates freedom in worship. 

■a + * 

The Paraguayans are an interesting but neg- 
lected people, said to number over 300,000, and are 
virtually without any religion. 



South America. 65 

The natives of South America are much similar 
to each other in appearance, except in the extreme 
south. They are fond of liberty and independence; 
slavery has never been brooked by them as by the 
Africans. Polygamy is common in most of the 
tribes, and it is very customary for a man to bring 
up a young girl from childhood to be one of his 
wives in due course. The first wife by no means 
approves of this " too much marrying," and not in- 
frequently rebels and wins the day against any rival 
being introduced into the family lodge. Wild 
dances of all sorts are very popular ; while at great 
merry-makings and feasts, wrestling and trials of 
strength are popular amusements of the younger 
men. 

One writer says: "The Guianaian Indian is 
hospitable according to his means ; every visitor gets 
the best he has in his house. In his turn, he is 
fond of paying visits; indeed, a full fourth of the 
year is occupied by going about, so that, in course 
of time, he gets well acquainted w T ith the country. 
Time to him is nothing. When he goes off on a 
journey, and requires to be at home on a certain 
date, he will leave a kind of calendar with his 
friend, consisting of a knotted string, each knot 
representing a day. A knot is untied on the morn- 
ing of each day he is absent, and, if he is w T ell, he 
will arrive on the day the last knot is untied. 
Theft is unusual among them, though each tribe 
accuses the other of being addicted to pilfering." 

5 



66 Mission Fields. 

Of the Patagonians, the same writer says: " Their 
faces are ordinarily bright and good-humored, though 
in the presence of strangers they assume a sober and 
even a sullen demeanor. Paint is worn on the face 
and on the body as a protection against the effects 
of the wind and sun, and on high occasions the men 
adorn themselves with white paint." 

There is a large class of so-called. "tame Indi- 
ans," whose condition is wretched almost beyond 
description. The condition of the wild Indian is 
simply that of a wild animal — naked, and unspeak- 
ably filthy. The frontiersman shoots him without 
compunction; and the work of the Government is a 
farce, so far as any serious attempt to evangelize the 
Indians is concerned. 

The Chilano is the Yankee of South America — 
the most ingenious and thrifty of the Spanish- 
American race; quick to perceive, but cold-blooded 
and cruel. 

The women do the street cleaning, occupy the 
markets, keep fruit-stands, and are employed as 
street-car conductors; for it must be borne in mind 
that Chilians take the front rank in intelligence and 
enterprise of any of the South American races ; and 
Chili may justly be ranked with other civilized na- 
tions, her upper social and intellectual life being 
largely patterned after French ideas. Nevertheless, 
her people are given to deception, and some do pur- 
loin. It is the common rule to put away from the 
parlor pretty little ornaments, lest they disappear. 



South America. 67 

Yet not all the people are untruthful, nor do all 
steal; but public sentiment is exceedingly loose on 
some things.- The Protestant idea of Sabbath-keep- 
ing is almost wholly unknown as a theory, and al- 
most universally disregarded as a rule of life. The 
Chilians need the gospel; they need Christian edu- 
cation. 

Brazil is one of the largest empires in the world. 
Its natural resources are equal to those of the United 
States, and its physical condition such as to offer 
great inducements to the crowded and distressed 
millions of Europe. Numerous rivers and lofty 
mountains make it a beautiful land; but the cus- 
toms and the manners of the people, their super- 
stitions, morals, and religion, make the country any- 
thing but a safe and restful habitation for mis- 
sionaries. 

In portions of the country the aboriginal In- 
dians have, to a large extent, become amalgamated 
w T ith the settled population ; but in the vast interior 
they remain to a great extent in a savage condi- 
tion. It is estimated that there are still a million 
of Indians in Brazil. It is a mere estimate. We 
have no means of ascertaining the exact truth. 
Indeed, a vast part of the territory has never been 
explored. Only recently, German explorers, going 
tip a confluent of the Amazon River — the Xingu — 
found tribes of Indians of which there had never 
been notice even; not nomadic, but agricultural in 
their habits. It has been said that the Indians of 



68 Mission FiKivDS. 

Brazil are inferior in some respects to those of North 
America; yet they have the same qualities phys- 
ically. They show the same strong sense, the keen 
perception of truth and justice, which has been re- 
vealed frequently in the "poor Indian" of our own 
country. The eastern provinces of Brazil are dif- 
ferent ; primary education is gratuitous, and is com- 
pulsory in some. Their customs are peculiar. It is 
not thought the proper thing for the women to eat 
with the men. Women never appear outside their 
houses without a male escort or slave. Domestic 
animals have perfect freedom of the house; and 
dogs, pigs, and cows even, are a common sight upon 
entering a house. 

* .;. .& 

The wife of Professor Agassiz wrote of Brazilian 
women: "Among my own sex I have never seen 
such sad, sad lives — lives deprived of healthy, in- 
vigorating happiness; intolerably monotonous, inac- 
tive, stagnant." A Brazilian woman contributed to 
a Brooklyn magazine the following very readable 
article on the characteristics of her country-women. 
She says: "Consanguineous marriages in Brazil are 
the rule, and not the exception. There are very 
many, not only of the first cousins, but also of 
double first cousins. It seems ludicrous to the 
stranger to hear a man and his wife address each 
other as cousin, as they generally do when such was 
their relationship. One reason for such marriages 



South America. 69 

is, that young people have little chance for becom- 
ing acquainted excepting with relations. A young 
man never visits a family he is not related to unless 
to make a brief ceremonious call — perhaps when 
about to leave town, or for some other like pur- 
pose — unless it is clearly understood that he comes 
with matrimonial intentions, when he always asks, 
not for the girl, but for her parents and guardians, 
who take her into the reception-room with them, 
all remaining until the visit is concluded. Relatives 
often meet under less restricted circumstances, until 
they, as a matter of course, * fall in love.' Still, 
occasionally, flirtations are inaugurated by the gen- 
tleman frequently passing the house of some girl 
between whom and himself there springs up a sort 
of understanding, when she will make it a point to 
be at a window or in the garden the hour he is in 
the habit of passing; and finally he will ask her 
hand of her guardians, and, if the match be ap- 
proved, they will become engaged without perhaps 
ever having exchanged a word, unless at some party 
where they chauced to meet he may have asked her 
for a dance or two, or on some other like occasion 
they may have exchanged the barest civilities. But 
whether the betrothed couple are cousins or not, 
they are never allowed to sit in a room by them- 
selves, much less to take a walk unaccompanied, 
until they are married, which generally follows a 
short engagement — long ones not being in favor. 
A girl is never permitted to go out, not even to 



70 Mission Fields. 

Church, unless chaperoned by one of the family, or 
some other lady, generally of mature age. Nothing 
could be more colorless than the life of a young 
Brazilian woman; she has no taste whatever for 
reading — her education is of the most meager de- 
scription, it not being considered worth while to 
educate girls. The necessity of educating boys is 
understood by parents, and those who are able, do 
so ; but a girl — what need has she for an education ? 
They are even ignorant of some of the most impor- 
tant historical facts relating to their own land, and 
of the thousand-and-one other topics that the women 
of America and other countries are generally con- 
versant with. They embroider, crochet, and study 
music; but usually lack the patience and applica- 
tion necessary to excel in the latter. If they want 
a drink of water, or their shoes changed,, they call 
a slave to do it. Many can sew and do their own 
dress-making, being very convenient with the needle, 
their natural antipathy to work being overcome by 
their love of dress. Their conversation is utterly 
frivolous; they talk very loud and in the most ani- 
mated manner, gesticulating and beating the air 
with their hands and arms, all talking at once. 

"If the Brazilian girl does not marry at the age 
when she ought to be playing with her dolls, she 
frequently continues to play with her dolls until she 
does marry. The writer remembers seeing a young 
woman, apparently about eighteen years of age, in 
a street-car in the city of Bahia, with a doll in her 



South America. 71 

lap, which she cared for and handled the same as a 
little girl would do ; and it is no unusual thing for 
young married women to own and play with these 
and similar fixtures of the nursery. 

" Books are scarce and expensive, leading one 
to infer there is but little literature in the language. 
What books there are, are mainly religious, and 
filled with accounts of miracles, both of olden and 
recent times. In the large cities women go to 
parties and entertainments; but those living in the 
country rarely go out, and when they do, it is an 
event to be prepared for and talked of for weeks in 
advance. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at 
that Brazilian women, with so little to do, should 
be proud of the sound of their own voices and of 
gossip. It is not uncommon to hear a Brazilian 
woman talking so loudly to herself as to lead one 
passing her room to suppose that she was entertain- 
ing a company of friends in conversation. The 
most prolific subject is their religion; and nearly 
all holidays have some connection with the Church. 
The women usually do evince a deep interest in 
all religious matters, and these ofttimes form an en- 
tire conversation for hours at a time. 

"It must not be inferred that all the women of 
Brazil are possessed of the dispositions and habits 
above described. There are a few thoughtful 
women, mostly self-educated, who have yearnings 
for a life less intolerably dull and narrow — women 
who, in spite of all difficulties, study and read, and 



72 Mission Fields. 

despise the aimless, dreary, cramped existence that 
they are condemned to, and which suffices for so 
many others." 

Another writer fittingly says: "In the name of 
the Brazilian people that need so much help, in the 
names of the souls that will perish unless we carry 
them the light, in the name of our solemn duty to 
them, in the name of our blessed Savior who bought 
them and us with his most precious blood, let every 
Christian in the United States of North America do 
all he can for the United States of Brazil!" 

"Tell me," said a young Spaniard at Buenos 
Ayres, "are there no Christians in North America?" 
"Yes," answered the missionary, "hundreds of 
thousands." "Then," with a most sad face, he con- 
tinued, "why do not they come out here? Do you 
know that Buenos Ayres is so ready for the gospel 
that you have only to announce a meeting, and the 
people crowd in until there is not room to stand?" 

The people of Terra del Fuego are thus de- 
scribed by an English missionary: " They are no- 
madic in their habits, moving about from place to 
place in their bark canoes, in the center of which a 
fire is always burning. Each canoe contains a fam- 
ily ; the wife rowing, while the husband is on watch 
with his javelin. On landing, the woman has, first 



South America. 73 

of all, to carry her husband ashore, he holding the 
fire carefully above the water. When everything 
is ashore, the woman at once begins the erection of 
their primitive hut. The men are rarely able to 
swim; but the women are, as a rule, expert swim- 
mers, and this, together with their constant work at 
rowing, gives them extraordinary muscular power. 

Polygamy is practiced to the extent of each man 
usually having two wives — an older and a younger 
one. Without writing of any kind, they yet pre- 
serve many rules and customs, more or less tradi- 
tional, and mainly relating to the chase. They are 
good-natured and helpful, but tenacious in the de- 
fense of their rights. They delight in long stories 
and conversations, and in these a good part of their 
time is spent. Of all religious ideas and duties, 
they have a vague idea of the spirits of the departed 
wandering about in the world, and as greatly to be 
feared. Everything about the Fuegian is disgust- 
ing, and almost brute-like. The spectator turns 
away from him in the belief that surely no man, 
created in the image of his Maker, has reached the 
lowest type, or brute ascending to the highest stage. 
He moves about in a crouching, stooping posture; 
his person is covered with the filth of generations, 
and his long, mane-like locks are repulsive. Though 
living in a country where sleet, snow, and rain are 
almost every-day occurrences, the male Fuegian 
wears no clothing, except a small piece of seal-skin 
thrown over his shoulder, and removed now and 



74 Mission Fields. 

then so as to shelter his person in the direction 
whence the blast may be blowing. The women 
have qnite as little clothing. The skins of this race 
seem to be insensible to cold, and though they seem 
to strangers to be always shivering, yet this must 
have become a second nature with them; for they 
may be seen moving about from place to place, or 
sitting in their canoes, with the whirling snow beat- 
ing against their nude persons, seemingly without 
caring. 

Among the most interesting missionary records 
is the account of Captain Allen Gardner's labors, 
who gave his life to South America. His story is 
simple. He was an officer of the English navy, 
who lost early his young and accomplished wife. 
He then consecrated himself to missionary services. 
He spent time and much out of his private re- 
sources in visiting various parts of the world. To 
be a pioneer missionary to the most abandoned 
heathen was his aim in life. He especially set his 
heart on South America. He did not live, suffer, 
nor die in vain. In Terra del Fuego his special ef- 
forts were made, and as a result there is now a 
Christian Church, a district with schools, an orphan- 
age, Bible and mothers' meetings. 

The great naturalist Darwin said that the first 
time he visited Terra del Fuego the people were the 
most degraded he had ever seen — they were worse 



South America. 75 

than brutes. He visited the island again before his 
death, after mission-work had been carried on there 
for years, and he wrote: "The success of the Terra 
del Fuego Mission is most wonderful, and charms 
me, as I always prophesied utter failure." A mis- 
sionary went to the bedside of an injured Fuegian. 
"What is the matter?" he asked; and the man 
replied: "Sick — eye; man throw snowball hard, 
hit me." Directly he added: "Me walk straight 
home — say nothing; no hit man back." 

"There are times of depression," says the relator 
of this story, "when the thought of the ignorance 
of this people is borne upon the mind heavily; but 
then again come blessed flashes of light like this in- 
cident, slight as it seems, which gives me strength to 
go forward with renewed courage." 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. Who are the natives of South America? 

Answer. Indians, many of whom are in a half- 
civilized state. Three-tenths of the population of 
South America are put down as pure white, and 
one-tenth Negro; others are mixed-blood. 

Q. How many languages are spoken among the 
Indians ? 

A. Over four hundred; as many as among all 
the seven or eight hundred millions of the Old- 
World inhabitants. 



76 Mission Fields. 

Q. Who were the first European settlers? 

A. The Portuguese. 

Q. What European nations have founded settle- 
ments in South America? 

A. The Portuguese, Spaniards, French, Dutch, 
and British. 

Q. Are Protestant missions permitted ? 

A. They are permitted in all the republics, but 
with restrictions in some, and in all are much op- 
posed by Romish priests. 

Q. What was the first Protestant work in South 
America ? 

A. The first Protestant Church was formed by 
a colony of French Huguenots on an island near 
Rio Janeiro, in 1554, and survived until 1567, 
when it was dispersed by the inhabitants. To-day 
over half a dozen different missionary societies are 
working in various portions of the continent. 

Q. What is the proportion of Protestant mission- 
aries to population ? 

A. It is said that there is one Protestant mis- 
sionary to 600,000 persons in South America. 

— i-^t^^*^-*' — 

MEXICO. 

There are at least 8,000,000 people in the 
United States of Mexico who have never seen a 
copy of the Holy Scriptures. In that population 
of 11,000,000, there are just about 400 Protestant 



Mexico. 77 

workers. What parishes ! Every worker caring for 
some 28,000 souls! We can not afford to have a 
Christless and Churchless neighbor. Let us visit 
her, and carry with us Christ. 

— Gospel in All Lands. 

•a- •?• -te 

Mexico is as much a field for Protestant mis- 
sions as China or Africa. — Dk. Pierson. 

It is absolutely heart-rending to think of a na- 
tion of people right by our door, in as fair a prov- 
ince, in some parts of it, for climate, for soil, and 
for wealth of resources in all manner of production, 
as the sun shines on in all his course, living and 
dying in this deplorable state for hundreds and 
possibly thousands of years — generation following 
generation, and century following century — and the 
same pall of worse than death still hanging over them. 

Has their redemption dawned at last? We 
would fain hope so. Surely there is enough humanity 
in man, not to mention Christian sympathy, now 
that the door is open, to send healing influences of 
Christianizing and civilizing agencies into this Dead 
Sea of semi-heathen misery. But it is said Mexico 
is a Christian land ; and how can this wretched- 
ness be explained? Has Christianity done nothing 
for this people? We have to answer: Yes, Mexico 
is a so-called Christian nation. She calls herself 



78 Mission Fields. 

"a most Christian nation." It is not the want of 
Christianity, but the kind of Christianity it has, 
that is its bane. A type of Christianity must be 
given to it that will purge those golden mountains 
and wealth-bearing plains, and give it a different 
kind of homes and peoples; that will transform 
those sad and wretched hordes into men and women, 
and make their hearts and homes bloom with the 
hopes and loves and refinements such as grow on 
the stem of the Christianity of Christ. 

— Bishop Foster. 

* ••• -fc 

The country of Mexico is, from every point of 
view, one of the fairest and most interesting in the 
world. Lay it on our Kepublic, and it would cover 
one-third of our territory. 

The towns and hamlets look very much as they 
have looked for the past three hundred years — bits 
of old Spain dropped into the New World soil amid 
the moldering ruins of its ancient civilization. Its 
population is said to number 11,000,000, and it is 
generally agreed that about one-third of the w T hole 
number are pure Indians, the descendants of the 
proprietors of the soil at the time of its conquest by 
the Spaniards; a people yet living in a great de- 
gree by themselves, though mingling in the streets 
of the cities with the other races, and speaking 
about one hundred and twenty different languages 
or dialects. 



Mexico. 79 

c 

They are slow workers, but faithful and perse- 
vering; they often live to be a hundred years old, 
and the women are especially long-lived. Nearly one- 
half of the white population are of mixed blood. 
The Mestizos, whose maternal ancestors were Indi- 
ans, and their fathers of Caucasian blood, constitute 
the dominant £ace of Mexico. 

These people are industrious, easily managed, 
and contented. Poverty does not imply extreme 
suffering from either cold or starvation, because of 
the mildness and productions of the country. When 
their simple wants are satisfied, money with them 
has but little value, and quickly finds its way into the 
pockets of priests or lottery-sellers. Lottery-offices 
are everywhere. 

Many of the hospitals and other charitable insti- 
tutions are sustained by this sort of gambling. The 
religion of the people seems to have been absorbed 
by their vices, or their vices Ivy their religion — 
either way — for even the lotteries and gambling- 
dens sail under the name and patronage of the 
saints. 

The moral condition of the people is extremely 
low. Perhaps half of the population living to- 
gether as man and wife are not married. The ex- 
orbitant marriage-fees of the Church have had much 
to do with this. 

Ignorance is rife. It is still said to be true that 
six-sevenths of the people can neither read or write. 

Lacking a river system and having few harbors, 



80 Mission Fields. 

Mexican commerce naturally floats to our ports. 
Awaking to the superiority of our civilization, Mex- 
ican society begins to court closer fellowship with 
our institutions. Whether avarice and ambition 
shall conquer Mexico in the interests of trade and 
traffic, or the spirit of the gospel shall impel la- 
borers to till those fields for Christ, is the issue of 

the hour. 

•» ••• -l* 

While habits and customs which are wrought 
into the very life of the people are fast giving way 
before American ideas, yet there are immense dis- 
tricts where foreign wares and ways are unknown. 
Husbandry is still carried on as it was when Joseph 
w 7 as Pharaoh's overseer in Egypt. 

Men and women both share in the burdens of 
caring for the family; a woman may work in the 
fields, but the heaviest part of outdoor labor comes 
on the man. Those who are too poor to own one 
of their little ponies, will all day carry on their 
own backs a load of from seventy-five to a hundred 
pounds. They take short steps, and go on their 
long journeys, up and down hill, at a jog-trot, re- 
turning satisfied if they have earned a dollar or two 
at most. 

For love of wife and children, Mexicans of every 
class are unexcelled anywhere. If a man is at work 
on a new road, thither he transports his wife and 
babies. He has a shelter for them somewhere 
among the cactus or palms, or he burrows in a hill- 



Mexico. 81 

side, or has a little thatch amid the brush. Here 
the little brown children roll in the sun with the 
pigs, which have accompanied the family on their 
migration. The pony, if they have one, is tethered 
close by ; and the inevitable donkey goes hobbling 
about, as long-suffering as the Indian, and with some- 
thing like his history. 

The ordinary homes of the common people are 
built of adobe or logs, and branches of trees. A 
heap of stones in the corner serves for a fire-place 
on the earthen floor. 

Large, costly, and often elegant stone edifices, 
public and private, are not wanting in the principal 
towns and cities. 

Servants are cheap and plenty, and you are 
pretty sure to have several descendants of the Aztec 
kings about the house if you hire one; for it is 
the rule that the whole family go with the father or 
mother when they go out to service. The cook 
brings her husband and her children, and they are 
fed from your table and sleep under your roof. 
The husband may be a shoemaker or a hackman, 
but he lives where his wife works. There are usually 
rooms enough in the house for them all, and the 
only food they w T ant is plenty of beans and what is 
left from one's table. 

A Mexican girl is born and grows up amidst 
quarrels, laziness, and blows. While but a baby 
herself she becomes a nurse for the next comer, and 

6 



82 Mission Fields. 

often she may be seen in the street staggering under 
the weight of an infant almost as large as herself. 
What does she wear? Kags. The skirt, once put 
on, stays on till it drops off; she lives in it — she 
sleeps in it. Her head and shoulders are covered 
with the national reboza. Where is she educated? 
In the streets — growing very wise in this world's 
craftiness. So the years go on, and at the age of 
perhaps fourteen she marries a boy of sixteen. Is 
her condition bettered? By no means. From this 
time she is probably the bread-winner of the house- 
hold, receiving as her only reward blows and curses. 
Children are born to her, to be reared as was she 
herself; and while she is comparatively young in 
years she is an old woman. But has religion no 
comfort for her? The priest gives comfort only to 
those who give money, and her pennies are few. 
She goes regularly to the church; but can Latin 
prayers soothe her troubled heart? Sickness enters 
her door; will the priest come, and, with kindly 
w T ords and deeds, strengthen and help ? If she pays 
well he will come, mutter a few meaningless prayers, 
sprinkle the sick with holy water, and go. At last 
she lays down her burden ; her body, without funeral 
rite, is hurried to the grave, perhaps on the shoulders 
of men; her soul — where is it? 

Do you think this is overdrawn? The picture 
scarcely gives you an idea of the miserable, aimless, 
godless lives of the women of Mexico among the 
lowest class. Naturally as you ascend you find the 



Mkxico. 83 

temporal wants better supplied, and consequently 
less and less bodily suffering. 

Of courtship, among the better class, a corre- 
spondent writes: "The beginning of it consists in a 
young man passing up and down the street where 
the object of his admiration resides, between the 
hours of five and eight o'clock every afternoon, with 
his eyes fixed on the balcony, where the young 
woman is standing if she wishes to encourage him. 
^Then he goes to the same church and the same mass 
as she does, and looks at her all the time she is pray- 
ing, and he ought to do the same. He walks after her 
in the street when she goes out shopping accompanied 
by some elderly lady ; in fact, he follows her every- 
where, without ever speaking to her unless he hap- 
pens to dance with her in a ball-room. If he 
receives a great amount of encouragement, then he 
passes up and down the street where she lives, not 
only in the afternoon, but at other hours of the 
day. He will make signs to her; and when he can 
not express all he wants to say by signs, then he 
writes notes to her, and, when it is dark, throws 
them upon the balcony, tied to a small bouquet. 
Before visiting the house, some person of influence 
proposes the young man to the father as fiance for 
the young lady; and if he is accepted, then he is 
allowed to visit, and only sees his intended wife in 
the presence of the entire family until their mar- 
riage." 

A recent visitor to Mexico was struck by the 



84 Mission Fields. 

sad expression on the faces of the Mexican women ; 
there seemed to be no joy or mirthfulness in their 
lives. They are plodding and industrious; they 
weave, with their old Aztec looms, just such cloth 
as their ancestors gave to Cortez by the bale. "As 
woman is naturally more religious than man," says 
an author, "when she kneels at the shrine, and 
yields obedience to a false religion, her servitude is 
more abject, her condition more deplorable. Woman 
in Mexico, as in all Catholic countries, is a pitiable 
slave. From childhood she is taught to yield her- 
self implicitly, body and soul, to the will of the 
priest. In the confessional she must tell every- 
thing. There are no family^ secrets, no conjugal 
confidences, but must be poured into the ear of the 
father confessor. The priest, knowing all family 
affairs — its incomings and outgoings, even to the 
minute, every-day occurrences — has it wholly in 
his power, and this power is used for the basest 
purposes." 

When once converted to Christianity the women 
become ardent, loving followers of . the blessed Jesus. 
One missionary tells us of women he has known 
who have worked in the sun all day, and traveled 
miles at night, carrying their children in their arms, 
to attend a prayer-meeting, and walking back in 
time to begin work at five o'clock the next morn- 
ing. Another tells us of an old woman, who never 
saw the Bible until she was seventy years old, and 



Mexico. 85 

who, at a special Conference meeting recently, 
walked five miles to attend the service and give her 
testimony, though then over eighty years old.. 

3* ••• & 

With all that makes Mexico one of the most 
fruitful of mission-fields, it has been called, with 
truth, one of the most difficult and dangerous. 
Scarcely one of the Protestant Churches but has 
had its martyrs, and sometimes many of them. 
One missionary writes: "More than once I have 
looked out on a sea of maddened creatures, ready 
to tear me limb from limb, almost succeeding in 
forcing an entrance into the house, but held back 
by the unseen Hand." 

Never in any nation has human sacrifice been 
carried to so frightful an extent as it was among 
this people. Human sacrifices, and the sacrificial 
eating of human flesh, formerly prevailed to a mon- 
strous and cruel degree. 

"Mexico, Past and Present," from which we 
have made copious extracts, says: "There are sad 
memories haunting almost every corner of Mexico. 
In the square in which stands the Convent of San 
Domingo were the Inquisition buildings, under the 
care of Dominican friars ; these buildings are 
now occupied by the Methodist Mission. One of 
the gilded rooms, of which they took possession, had 
in its walls a door which had been plastered up. 
This was knocked open, and a room was found in 



86 Mission Fields. 

which were many human skeletons. The hapless 
victims had evidently been let down through a well- 
like opening overhead, and left alone to die, the 
living among the dead. From the court-yard of 
this terrible prison, thirteen cart-loads of human 
bones were taken before it could be made suitable 
for the purposes of the mission." 

But all classes of people in Mexico are being 
aroused a little. Those who used to beg or starve, 
because they had nothing else to do, can now earn 
an honest living with pickax and spade along rail- 
road routes. In the educational institutions several 
thousand students are now pursuing their studies. 
Besides these are asylums for the blind, the deaf and 
dumb, and some other charities. 

It is not yet a hundred years since the streets of 
the City of Mexico were lighted at night, and 
scarcely twenty-five since a moonlight walk was 
safe for either ladies or gentlemen. They are now 
as orderly as those of any city in America. The 
policemen stand with lanterns, about a hundred 
yards apart, all over the city. 

"I wish you could be in our church some Sun- 
day night," says a Mexican missionary. " You 
would see over five hundred Mexicans, many so poor 
that they can get only one miserable meal per day ; 
many sitting there, trying to stretch a ragged old 
blouse or shirt so as to make it conceal their bare 
backs and shoulders; many taking turns — when they 
have not clothes — the mother wearing the only de- 



Mexico. 87 

cent dress to one service, the daughter to the next. 
Five hundred Mexicans, four-fifths of them with no 
better clothing than a single, thin, muslin suit, when 
it is so cold that we Americans are cold with all our 
thick clothing and our overcoats on! All this to 
hear the gospel !" 

■» ••• & 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. To what race do the people of Mexico 
belong? 

Answer. There are about 6,000,000 native Indi- 
ans; 3,000,000 mixed Indian and white; 1,500,000 
Mexican-born Spaniards; 150,000 pure white, of 
whom 50,000 are natives of Spain; 10,000 Ne- 
groes; 45,000 mixed Negro and Indian; and 50,000 
mixed Negro and white. 

Q. What is the present Government? 

A. A federal republic of twenty-seven States, 
one Territory — Lower California — and the federal 
district of the City of Mexico and vicinity. The 
structure and administration of the Government are 
modeled after that of the United States. 

Q. What is the state of education ? 

A. Until 1857 there was none worth the name. 
Since that time more than 5,000 public schools have 
been established and maintained by the State, in- 
cluding universities and technical schools. 



88 Mission Fields. 

Q. What is the religion ? 

A. The majority of the people are Roman Cath- 
olics, and are ignorant and superstitious. It is 
estimated that still from one- third to one-half of 
the real estate is owned by priests. The Church 
collects from the people throughout the Republic 
$20,000,000 a year, and she has left the people poor, 
ignorant, superstitious, and immoral. 

Q. What of some remnants of public buildings 
and instruments of torture in preservation in the 
museums ? 

A. In the National Museum may be seen the 
sacrificial stone of the Aztecs, all begrimed with 
stains, just as when thrown down by the Spaniards, 
still stained with the life-blood of their countrymen. 
There is the terrible stone yoke, that used to hold 
fast the victim while the heart was torn from the 
quivering body; and also the obsidian knives, with 
which the priests, with solemn pomp, made the in- 
cision between the ribs of the 1 doomed victim. 

Q. Who was the pioneer lady missionary from 
America ? 

A. Miss Rankin, who fearlessly, quietly, and 
zealously w T orked for years on the Mexican border; 
many times she was persecuted, and the history of 
her mission labors reads like a romance. Thousands 
of Bibles were carried into the country through 
her influence; among the first was one which she 
baked into a loaf of bread, and sent to Mata- 
moras. 



Turkey. 89 

Q. What can be said of the silver-mines of 
Mexico? 

A. Doubtless Mexico has produced one-half the 
existing stock of silver in the world. There are 
mines which yield $13,000,000 annually, and no 
silver-mines have ever been known to give out. The 
mines which the Aztecs worked before Cortez came 
are profitable yet. 



t-Zn*^'^*^* 



TURKEY. 

Osman Bey said: "During my stay in America 
I was often overwhelmed with questions about the 
Orient and Turkish life in general. The intensity 
of the American desire for information about our 
'Land of the Crescent' was most flattering." 

The two great divisions of Turkey are: Turkey 
in Europe, with a population, including Bulgaria 
and East Roumelia, of over seven millions; and 
Turkey in Asia, with a population of sixteen 
millions. 

Except in the poorest parts of the Koordish 
Mountains and in some northern portions, the peo- 
ple of Turkey live in comparative comfort. To be 
sure, what is ample for them seems to the foreigner 
a very meager supply ; but it is still true, as a rule, 
that they are in comfort so far as the supply of 



90 Mission Fields. 

bodily needs is concerned, Their food is simple, 
but wholesome. Their homes are rough, and furni- 
ture scanty. It is when sickness and old age bring 
weakness and distress that discomforts principally 
appear. 

In manners they are sedate and dignified; and 
their leading traits of character are pride, indolence, 
and self-indulgence, coupled with the redeeming 
virtues of hospitality to strangers, and strong do- 
mestic affection. 

The custom of the country allows boys and girls 
to play together until about eight years old, and 
after that the girl wears a veil whenever she goes 
visiting or shopping, and lives in the harem with 
the women ; the boy, from being altogether among 
women up to this time, must henceforth be the 
companion of men only, and probably does not 
speak to a woman till he is married to some un- 
known girl, bought or chosen for him by his 
parents. 

In a missionary point of view, Turkey is the key 
of Asia. Nowhere has the providential guidance of 
the missionary work been more remarkable. The 
Divine hand has alike prepared the minds of the 
Armenian people in Turkey for Christian influences, 
directed attention thither, blessed the missionaries 
with wisdom, interposed continually for the protec- 
tion of their work, and led them forward to a suc- 
cess already so broad and deep as to be silently 
molding the destinies of the empire. 



Turkey. 91 

In " People of Turkey," the author says: "I 
have often been asked what a Turkish lady does all 
day long. Does she sleep, or eat sugar-plums, and is 
she kept under lock and key by a Bluebeard of a 
husband, who allows her only the liberty of waiting 
on him? A Turkish lady is certainly shut up in a 
harem, and there can be no doubt that she is at 
liberty to indulge in the above-mentioned luxuries 
should she feel so disposed; she has possibly at 
times to submit to being locked up, but the key is 
applied to the outer gates, and is left in the keeping 
of the friendly attendant. In her home she is per- 
fect mistress of her time and of her property, which 
she can dispose of as she thinks proper. Should 
she have cause of complaint against any one, she is 
allowed to be very open spoken, holds her ground, 
and rights her own battles with astonishing coolness 
and decision. 

Turkish ladies appreciate to the full, as much as 
their husbands, the virtues of the indispensable cup 
of coffee and cigarette ; this is their first item in the 
day's program. The hanoums may next take a bath ; 
the young ladies wash at the abtest hours ; the slaves, 
when they can find time. The hanoum will then at- 
tend to her husband's wants, bring him his pipe and 
coffee, his slippers and pelisse. While smoking, he 
will sit on the sofa, whilst his wife occupies a lower 
position near him, and the slaves roll up the bed- 
ding from the floor. If the gentleman be a govern- 
ment functionary the official bag will be brought in, 



92 Mission Fields. 

and he will look over his documents, examining 
some, affixing his seal to others, saying a few words 
in the intervals to his wife, who always addresses 
him in a ceremonious manner, with great deference 
and respect. The children will then trot in to be 
caressed, and ask for money with which to buy 
sweets and cakes. The custom of giving pence to 
children daily is so prevalent that it is practiced 
even by the poor. 

The children, after an irregular breakfast, are 
sent to school, or allowed to roam about the house. 

The Mohammedan woman, no less than her father 
or husband, is in duty bound to pray seven times a 
day; and in the women's apartments there is every 
convenience for frequent ablutions required by their 
religion. The women, in general, are too indolent 
to undergo much exertion; they embroider a little, 
or else toy with the guitar. 

The women of Armenia display the same disre- 
gard to neatness as Turkish women, without possess- 
ing their redeeming point of cleanliness. Of the 
life in the harem we get an intimation from Miss 
West's "Romance of Missions," in which she says: 
"The inmates of some of the Turkish harems in 
the palaces, who, between the bars of their gilded 
cages, catch glimpses of {he gay life of the outside 
world, pine for the freedom, if not the culture and 
honor, enjoyed by their sister-women of Christian 
lands. And who can describe the wretchedness and 
wrong, the untold degradation and corruptions, hid- 



Turkey. 93 

den in the harems of Turkey? Denied all intel- 
lectual culture, all improving intercourse with the 
outer world; shut in completely to themselves, the 
prey of jealousy, envy, and every evil passion ; cru- 
elly crushed in all her higher instincts and intui- 
tions, — what wonder that the Moslem mother mourns 
when a daughter is born to her, as she traces its 
future in the light of her own past and present 
ignominy! For these ire the inevitable evils of a 
system so inwrought in the very warps* of Moslem 
social life." 

Concerning the women, an extract from the 
Turkish penal code reads: "In all cases of invol- 
untary, accidental killing, the price of blood, for a 
man, is about $1,500; half that for accidentally 
killing a woman; and for slaves, according to their 
value, about one-fifth or one-sixth of the penalty for 
a woman. 

"If two persons are together guilty, the two 
shall receive each the full penalty; but if they be 
husband and wife, the wife alone shall be punished." 

"The darkest hour in Turkish missions," says 
Dr. Pierson, "was reached in 1851, when a sultan 
issued a decree that all missionaries were to leave 
the land, and missions were to close. Dr. H., one 
of the American missionaries who tried in vain to 
get the decree revoked, called on Dr. B., and told 
him the sad news. But the Doctor, calmly rocking 



94 Mission Fields. 

himself in his chair, remarked, 'The Sultan of the 
universe can reverse it ;' and down they went before 
God. All night they prayed. The next morning the 
sultan died! His successor never mentioned the de- 
cree, and the missionaries are still carrying on their 
good work; and Turkey now is planted with 
churches from the Golden Horn to the Tigris and 
the Euphrates, and the Cross is beginning to outshine 
the Crescent." 

In his fascinating book, " Among the Turks/' 
Dr. Cyrus Hamlin says: "You can anywhere con- 
verse with Mohammedans on religious subjects with 
a freedom impossible thirty years ago. I once over- 
heard, in a steamer on the Bosphorus, some Turks 
discussing this point; and, to my amazement, they 
attributed the change to the influence of American 
missions, wholly unaware that an American was sit- 
ting behind them. By their books, schools, news- 
papers, translations of the Scriptures into all lan- 
guages, missions have had their influence — a very 
wide and extended one — outside of their direct 
labors." 

As an illustration of missionary results, "we read: 
"At Harput, on the Euphrates, one little mission 
Church, in less than twelve years, and at a cost 
not exceeding the expense of one modern church 
edifice, has multiplied itself into fourteen mission 
Churches." 

In a recent incident that comes from Turkey, 
the fellowship of Christians with each other and 



Turkky. 95 

with Christ is touchingly illustrated: Rev. Mr. 
Boolgoorjoo, of Marash, writes of a village, some 
seventeen miles from that city, which he visited on 
a recent Sunday, where the people are all poor; 
their main occupation being the bringing of guano 
to the city. One day they go to the mountain and 
bring back a donkey-load to the village, and on the 
next day they go to the city and sell the load for 
from ten to fifteen cents, thus earning this small 
sum for two days' work for man and beast. To 
these poor people Mr. Boolgoorjoo preached a ser- 
mon from 1 John i, 3: "That ye also may have 
fellowship with us," etc. The duty of so acting 
that they might have fellowship with the millions in 
China and India and Africa was dwelt upon, and 
these poor people responded cheerfully. One gave 
two cents, another, five cents; another, two quarts 
of beans; another, a donkey -load of wood; and so 
the sum of one dollar was raised, and the pastor 
sends it to be expended as an expression of their 
fellowship for the needy ones in Africa. Hardly 
one of these people had a whole suit of clothes; and 
the pastor says that they were so poorly clad that it 
would not be suitable for any of them to attend 
Church in any place in America. 



96 Mission Fields. 



RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What places in Turkey were noted in 
apostolic times? 

Answer. Philippi ; the seven cities — Ephesus. 
Smyrna, Pergamos, Laodicea, Philadelphia, Sardis, 
and Thyatira — " where the seven Churches of Asia" 
were; Tarsus, and Antioch. 

Q. What eminent early Christians lived and 
wrought there? 

A. Paul, Timothy, John, Polycarp, and many of 
the early fathers of post-apostolic days. 

Q. What kind of people are found in Turkey 
now? 

A. About two-thirds of them are Turks, a few 
Jews, Greeks, Armenians, Arabs, and individuals 
from almost every known country. 

Q. What is the government of Turkey? 

A. A religious despotism, based on the precepts 
of the Koran. 

Q. What other religions are professed? 

A. Those of the Greek, Armenian, and Nesto- 
rian Churches, and still others. There are three 
million Armenians in Turkey. They are active and 
enterprising. They are the bankers and merchants 
of the country. The Greeks are the remnant of the 
old Byzantine Empire, of which Constantinople was 
the capital. 

Q. What kinds of missionary schools are there? 



Turkey. 97 

A. Common schools, boarding-schools, colleges, 
and theological seminaries. 

Q. What has been done for woman in Turkey? 

A. Wherever the gospel has gone she has been 
trained to respect herself. She has been taught to 
read and to teach. As she rises, a]l classes of so- 
ciety will rise with her. "Turkish women, as yet, 
have scarcely been touched by the gospel," says one. 

Q. What can be said of one very remarkable 
Turkish woman? 

A. A very extraordinary woman was living, a 
short time ago, at Constantinople — Kara Fatma, 
the Eastern Joan of Arc — who was known as "the 
Maid of Kurdestan." At one time she commanded 
the brave but savage Bashi-Bazouks ; and, at the 
beginning of the Crimean War, she offered her 
services to the French general, Yusif, who, however, 
refused to see her. She then went back to Asia, 
where she fought perpetually in the small tribal 
wars. She was tall and dark, and, when sev- 
enty years of age, she still fought whenever she 
could find an opportunity. Her costume resembled, 
as closely as possible, that of a Turkish captain. 
Her breast was covered with military medals, and 
her insignia embroidered on her coat. The sultan, 
from whom she received a large pension, granted 
her private audiences, and made no secret of his 
opinion that he considered her the best officer in 
the Turkish army. — Englishman. 

Q. What glowing tribute does the author of 

7 



98 Mission Fields. 

"The People of Turkey" pay to missionary work 
amongst the Turks? 

A. " A wish for instruction is everywhere shown, 
and it has received a strong and most salutary im- 
pulse from the numerous American missionaries now 
established throughout Armenia. The untiring ef- 
forts of these praiseworthy and accomplished w r orkers 
in the cause of civilization and humanity are bearing 
fruit. They are working wonders among the unculti- 
vated inhabitants of this hitherto unhappy country, 
where mission-schools, founded- in all directions, are 
doing the double service of instructing the people by 
their enlightened moral and religious teaching, and 
of stimulating among the wealthy a desire to do for 
themselves — by the establishment of Armenian 
schools — what American philanthropy has so nobly 
begun to do for them." 

SYRIA. 

" Syria has figured prominently in history, both 
profane and sacred. Through it lies the great high- 
way between Asia and Africa, which has been so 
often thronged by caravans of trade, so often trod- 
den by hosts of war. Here was unrolled the an- 
cient Revelation of the true God. Patriarchs wan- 
dered here. Prophet and apostle lived and labored 
hm> Eigbeit of all, hm occurred th§ life, the 



Syria. 99 

toils, the sorrow, the death, the rising again, of our 
Lord. It was here that Barnabas and Saul were 
sent forth as the first missionaries to the Gentile 
world. Of what other land is the evangelization so 
imperative, so interesting?" 

"Of the morals of the Syrians, the less said the 
better. The Druses, though courteous, are cruel, 
fanatical, and, to strangers, deceitful. The Nusai- 
reeyehs are blood-thirsty. Polygamy is common. 
Divorce occurs at the will of the man. The Bed- 
ouins, though hospitable and often magnanimous, 
are fierce, revengeful, and depraved. The non- 
Mussulmans are idolatrous and debased. In general, 
the population is ignorant and corrupt; and, as in 
all Mohammedan countries, woman is held in low 
esteem." 

Syrians are polite in the extreme; delight in 
neighborly chat; have joyous feast-days; and live a 
happy, rather indolent, life. They are very fond of 
music. Shepherd-boys still picturesquely play the 
simple reed as they wander with their flock. Among 
the middle and upper classes there are many home 
comforts. The reverence of son for father, and 
many Syrian characteristics, are admirable. Syria 
is a land of homes, and in this center lie the hopes 
for the country. 

►» ••• & 

"How few of the hundreds of thousands of 
women in Syria know how to read! How few are 
the schools, ever established there for teaching 



100 Mission Fields. 

women! Any one who denies the degradation and 
ignorance of Syrian women would deny the exist- 
ence of the noonday sun." 

Calls for more schools" come from every part of 
Syria; and the demand for trained workers from 
Palestine, Northern Syria, and the Egyptian mis- 
sionaries is far larger every year than can be 
supplied. 

& •?■ * 

A Mt. Lebanon proverb reads: "The threshold 
weeps forty days when a girl is born." 

Layyah Barakat, a Syrian woman, says: "The 
only difference between the American and Syrian 
woman is, that one has lived under the shadows of 
the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the other under 
the Mohammedan Koran. I have been in Egypt 
and in Syria, in France and England, and nowhere 
have I seen women so happy, so blest, as in your 
own beautiful America." 

The mass of the Moslem men are bitterly op- 
posed to the instruction of women ; and, further- 
more, we read, in "The Women of the Arabs:" 
"When a man does decide to have his wife taught 
to read, the usual plan is to hire a blind sheikh, 
who knows the Koran by heart. He sits at one 
side of the room, and she at the other, some elderly 
woman being present also. The mass of the Mo- 



Syria. 101 

hammedans are nervously afraid of intrusting the 
knowledge of reading and writing to their wives 
and daughters, lest they abuse it by writing clan- 
destine letters." From Dr. Jessup we learn that 
the poetesses of the Arabs are numerous, and some 
of them hold a high rank in cases where education 
has been extended them. 

No Mohammedan ever walks w T ith his wife in 
the street; and in Moslem cities very few, if any, of 
the men of other sects are willing to be seen in 
public in company with a woman. The women are 
closely veiled; and if a man and his wife have oc- 
casion to go anywhere together, he walks in ad- 
vance, and she w T alks a long distance behind him. 
The scourging and beating of wives is one of the 
worst features of Moslem domestic life. It is a 
practice which has the sanction of the Koran, and 
will be indulged in without rebuke as long as Islam, 
as a system and a faith, prevails in the world. 
Happily for the poor women, the husbands do not 
generally beat them so as to imperil their lives, in 
case their own relatives reside in the vicinity, lest 
the excruciating screams of the suffering should 
reach the ears of her relatives and bring the hus- 
band into disgrace. But where there is no fear of 
discovery, blows and kicks are applied in the most 
merciless and barbarous manner. Women are killed 
in this way, and no outsider knows the cause. In 
most parts of Syria to-day the murder of women 
and girls is an act so insignificant as hardly to de- 



102 Mission Fields. 

serve notice. Mt. Lebanon and vicinity constitute 
an exception perhaps; but woman's right to life is 
one of those rights which have not yet been fully 
guaranteed. 

"In the reformation of a nation, then, the first 
step in the ladder is the education of the women 
from their childhood; and those who neglect the 
women and girls, and expect the elevation of a 
people by the mere training of men and boys, are 
like one walking with one foot on the earth and the 
other in the clouds. They build a wall, and woman 
tears down a castle. They elevate boys one degree, 
and women depress them many degrees." 

W ••• «■ 

The Christian Alliance has the following on 
Syrian customs, as illustrating Bible truths: "Let 
me tell you a little of the life of an Oriental girl,'' 
says the writer, "and to give you a picture of her 
as she enters into the marriage relation. A girl in 
an Oriental family of high rank must be a bride at 
the age of nine, ten, or twelve years. A girl who 
lives to be fifteen years old without being married 
is an old maid. When she is married she becomes 
the slave of her mother-in-law. A young man in 
that country can not marry until he is able to earn 
a bride. If he belongs to the lower class he can 
buy a good one for seven or eight dollars. If he 
is in the higher class he may have to pay five, six, 
or seven thousand dollars for her. He never goes 



Syria. 103 

to court her himself, but when he is ready to buy 
a wife he employs a friend to go and look up one 
for him. This friend will send a female relative to 
the home of a young woman of whom he has been 
told, and there will be a great hand-shaking. A 
cup of coffee is always brought to the visitor, but she 
refuses to take it ; she is not ready. When a visitor 
stays too long, it is customary to bring her a sec- 
ond cup of coffee, to let her know the time has 
come for her to depart. So they bring her a sec- 
ond cup, but she will not take it ; her mission is not 
yet performed. Finally, she tells them they have a 
daughter whom she would like to see. They go for 
her; but she is hidden away in her room, and has 
to be called several times before she will answer. 
When she finally is coaxed out, she immediately 
hands the visitor another cup of coffee, as a signal 
that she had better go; but the visitor gets hold of 
her, lifts her veil, and examines her carefully. If 
she is pleased, she goes back and praises her to the 
groom, who will sit for hours and listen to the de- 
scription. Then he gets an influential friend to 
bargain for her with her father. If he does not pay 
this friend sufficiently, he will advise the father not 
to consent to the arrangement, that this man will 
treat her badly and beat her. If, however, the ar- 
rangement is satisfactory, the father will say, 'My 
daughter is a slave to your friend ;' she is no longer 
the property of her father. In preparing for the 
wedding, the father is expected to spend a great deal 



104 Mission Fiki^ds. 

of money od her jewels; and when the marriage-day 
comes, her dress is heavy with gold and jewels, aud 
she is fairly loaded down with them. But she has 
never seen her groom. She has been told wonder- 
ful things about him, yet she has never seen him. 
As the time arrives, the friends of the groom form 
a procession, and, with their lamps filled with olive- 
oil, go out with him and parade the streets. Only 
those of their own rank are invited. At last the 
bride comes, and her maids are singing joyfully, and 
all the people in the street can see her. Then they 
go into the house, and the marriage ceremony is 
performed; but she has never yet seen him. After 
the ceremony is over, he lifts her veil, and she be- 
holds him for the first time in all his glory." 

*!• ••• ft 

In spite of great difficulties, however, Syria has 
for seventy years been the scene of most faithful 
missionary effort. If there were times of quiet, 
there were also times of persecution. , More than 
once has the land seen massacres, and the mission 
has produced more than a few martyrs. In all 
Syria, with Palestine, some thirty societies are en- 
gaged, doing preaching, teaching, and hospital- 
work. 

Beirut is to-day a Christian city. Stately 
churches; hospitals; a female seminary; a college, 
whose graduates are scattered over Syria, Egypt, 
and wherever the Arab roams; a theological sem- 



Syria. 105 

inary; a common-school system; and steam printing- 
presses, — all tell of its prosperity. 

Jerusalem has its streets lighted, and clocks are 
soen on its public buildings, and sauitary science is 
being respected. 

Bethlehem has paved streets, and over all the 
land the light begins to shine. "The King cometh; 
and a voice is heard again, as of old, Prepare ye the 
way of the Lord." 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What people inhabit Syria? 

Answer. The people are Arabs in race and lan- 
guage. 

Q. Who are the Bedouins? 

A. The Bedouins live in the desert. They 
have fine horses and camels, live in tents, and are 
nomads, roving from place to place. 

Q. What is the religion of the people? 

A. The people are divided into Mohammedans, 
Druses, and the nominal Christian sects; the latter 
are the remnants of the early Oriental Churches, 
now known as Maronite, Greek, and Greek Cath- 
olic. The Druses have a weird, mystical religion, 
of which little is known. The Bedouin Arabs are 
Moslems, but may be said to have no religion. 

Q. What is the language of Syria? 

A. Arabic, the language of the Koran — the re- 



106 Mission Fields. 

ligious book of the Mohammedans — and familiar in 
that way to 185,000,000 of the human race. It is 
spoken by 60,000,000 of people. 

Q. What is the condition of the women? 

A. Among the Mohammedans they are degraded 
and ignorant; abused by their fathers, husbands, 
and sons; made to labor in the fields like animals; 
and treated as slaves. They are thought to have 
no minds, and to be incapable of learning. Great 
sorro~w is manifested when a daughter is born, and 
a man never counts his daughters when speaking of 
his children. 

Q. What obstacles had to be overcome in the 
first effort to educate the girls? 

A. It was almost impossible to induce parents to 
allow their daughters to be educated. 

Q. What has been gained in this respect? 

A. Wonderful progress has been made in the 
last thirty years. A large number of girls have 
been educated in mission-schools who are now heads 
of Christian families, and there are 7,000 girls in 
evangelical schools in Syria and Palestine. 

Q. What is the dress of the women? 

A. They wear wide trousers, with a loose, long 
garment over them. The hair is generally worn in 
many long braids, hanging down the back, with a 
cap on the head. In the cities they never go out 
without wrapping themselves from head to foot in 
a large white sheet, and veiling their faces closely. 
In the villages they wear long white veils, which 



Syria. 107 

they draw across their faces, leaving one eye ex- 
posed. 

Q. How are the houses built? 

A. The houses are all built of stone. In the 
cities the universal style of architecture is a central 
court, with rooms around it. The houses in the 
mountain villages generally consist of but one room, 
with a mud-floor, no windows, and a small door. 
The roofs are flat, and are used for spreading fruit 
and wheat to dry, and the family often sleep there 
during the hot season. The Mohammedans pray on 
their house-tops. 

Q. How are the houses furnished? 

A. The houses have mats and rugs on the floor; 
along the walls are low divans and cushioned backs. 
They have no chairs, or tables, except a small one 
at which they eat. Their beds are spread on the 
floor at night, and during the day are rolled up and 
put away in closets. 

Q. How do the funeral customs differ from 
ours? 

A. As soon as death comes, the air is filled with 
the noise- of wailing and shrieking by women — often 
hired for the purpose — and the funeral takes place 
almost immediately. The Mohammedans use a bier 
which is carried on the shoulders of men, and each 
one in the procession is desirous of bearing it for a 
short distance. The Mohammedans do not use cof- 
fins, as their dead are buried in a sitting posture. s 

Q. What are some Bible customs still in vogue? 



108 Mission Fields. 

A. The placing of the blind and crippled by the 
wayside to beg; praying on the house-tops; the sal- 
utations; and the customs in buying and selling, 
in building, traveling, in agriculture, in dress, and 
food. 

Q. How many children are there in all the Prot- 
estant schools in Syria and Palestine? 

A. Over 15,000. — Anna H. Jessup. 



J-^9*^^^-i 



PERSIA. 

Persia constitutes one of the most interesting 
mission-fields in the world. That which gives to the 
Nestorians, in particular, a peculiar interest is the 
missionary character which they have once borne, 
and which it is to be hoped they will bear again. 
Persia is ruined by despotism, misrule, and cruel 
feudal oppression. No lover of humanity can re- 
gard such a land but with feelings of profound pity. 
"We long for the day," says a missionary, "when 
civilization will build highways and railways by 
which charity, at least, can be conveyed to the fam- 
ishing. A proper system of roads, and one or two 
railroads, in Persia would make famines impossible. 
The country has natural resources which only need 
developing, to make her, as in ancient times, a great 
nation." 



Persia. ' 109 

From Karachi to Bagdad; among the populous 
cities and villages of the Persian Gulf, of the Tigris 
and Euphrates; throughout Arabia, throughout 
South and Southwest Persia, — not a missionary ! 
From Bagdad to Teheran — almost the most populous 
district of Persia — not . a missionary ! The great 
oasis of Feraghan, at a height of 7,000 feet, with 
680 villages, craving medical advice, never visited — 
scarcely mapped ! Then Julfa and Hamadan, with 
their few workers, almost powerless to itinerate, 
represent the work of the Church for the remainder 
of Persia! Two million nomads that have never 
been touched ! —Medical Missions. 

& ••• & 

"When I think of all I have seen and heard in 
Persia, I sometimes think I have almost seen into 
hell." — Mes. Ehea. 

•$* ••• & 

Persia, the land of Cyrus, and of the great em- 
pires of the Euphrates; the land in which Daniel 
prayed and prophesied, — with a written history 
dating from 1900 B. C, though now much reduced 
in size, is yet twice as large as the German Empire, 
having 450,000 square miles. The author of "Per- 
sia; Eastern Mission," says: "All the people feel 
the result of the defects of their civilization and 
habits of life. All the people, without exception of 
race or religion, are extremely poor, save a few men 



110 Mission Fields. 

who have inherited titles or been especially favored 
by the Government. These men of wealth do not 
usually reside in the districts in which their estates 
lie, but resort to the capital and the large cities. 
The people live in villages, composed of hovels con- 
structed of sun-dried bricks or of mud. The dress 
and appearance of the inhabitants of these villages 
are in keeping with the aspect of the hovels in 
which they live. The garments of the women are 
tattered and dirty. The apparel of the men is not 
much better. It could not be expected that such a 
people would be examples of cleanliness. In this 
particular they may compare well with the poor of 
other countries; but no European or North Amer- 
ican country presents such a continuous, unmitigated 
pest of vermin as belongs to all places, persons, and 
things in Persia. The peasants and masses of the 
people are covered with vermin. The beggar and 
tramp may lie down to-night on the earth and floor 
in the room where, to-morrow night, the prime 
minister or the shah may have to spread his carpet. 
Places of public resort are free to all. In the 
mosques the people sit upon the floor. The public 
baths are underground dens, reeking with filth." 

The Persians are more liberal than other Mo- 
hammedan nations; and it is almost an unheard-of 
thing for an Arab or a Turk to discuss his religion 
with a Christian, but the Persian enjoys it. 



Persia. Ill 

"Of the long chain of Moslem lands from the 
Pillars of Hercules to India and China, the two 
links that are weakest," says Dr. Shedd, "are 
Egypt and Persia. If strong Christian influence 
prevail in either of these, the chain is broken. 
The hope in the case of Persia is growing brighter; 
there are more signs of progress in opening the 
country to commerce and to Christian influence than 
in centuries before." The ruling shah feels the 
touch of modern ideas, and, through a ministry on 
the European model, has introduced banks, gas, tele- 
graphs, and street-railway. There has never been 
any objection to Bible teachings in the country, and 
those in authority desire to grant religious tolera- 
tion. The mission-schools are permeating the country 
with their uplifting influences, and the Churches 
are developing men and women of most Christ-like 
character. Many of the converted natives show an 
admirable spirit of self-sacrifice and generosity. 
There are native members of Churches, many of 
whom get but three dollars wages a month, and 
who cheerfully give a tenth of that sum to their 
Churches. Speakiug of a woman converted to 
Christianity, and of the spotless life she afterwards 
led, a missionary says: "She was the best theologian 
among the Nestorians; and often have I said that 
if I wanted to write a good sermon, I would like to 
sit down first and talk with her, and then be sure 
ghe was praying for me," 



112 Mission Fields. 

The women of Persia ! We imagine them queenly 
beings — dark-haired, dark-eyed honris — capable of 
the fondest and most passionate attachments, and 
faithful until death. We think of them in palatial 
harems, reclining on silken cushions, sipping their 
nectar drinks, singing the loves of nightingale and 
rose to the gentle tones of the soft guitar, which 
vibrates to the skillful touch of the snowy fingers, 
flashing w T ith costly gems! Such is the Persia of 
romance, and so often pictured to us in song and 
story. 

But alas! alas! the woof and web of the weav- 
ing is all fancy, and we find in the real Persia of 
to-day nothing desirable, nothing romantic, nothing 
attractive, except as the love of Christ draws us to 
the neediest, the vilest, the lowest, and the most repul- 
sive of our fellow-creatures. If you could look 
upon the women of Persia, that look would suffice, 
and I should not need to add another word in their 
behalf. Your hearts w T ould melt in pity, your 
prayers ascend to God, and your hands reach oat to 
help them. 

Let us look more closely at the women of Persia. 
They come into the world unwelcome. No father 
or mother rejoices at the birth of a female child; 
but, on the contrary, sorrow is openly expressed, 
and the friends come to condole with them. But 
when a boy is born the father gives presents, and 
the friends come to offer congratulations, and "bless 
the foot of the lad;" a feast ensues, and happiness 



Pkrsia. 113 

h 

prevails. It is told far and near, as the best ot 
news, that a son is born to such a house. When 
the people wish to say the kindest and most polite 
things possible, it is always in one form — "The 
Lord give thee a son!" Even the beggars in the 
streets return their blessing for a crust or a cent. 

A parent in counting his children, even when 
you ask their number, mentions only the boys, the 
girls being unworthy of note. The little girl, if 
she is able to survive the hardships of a neglected 
and unloved infancy — which often crush out the 
tender life — grows up neglected and unloved still. 
As soon as she can work and bear burdens, the 
heaviest are laid on her young shoulders, and fast- 
ened there by cruel blows. She learns to share 
with her mother in menial toil, and soon sinks down 
naturally and uncomplainingly to her level with the 
donkeys. 

Donkeys are universal beasts of burden, and 
women are classed with them. Sometimes a woman 
and a donkey are harnessed together in the same 
plow ; and even if this is not done, exactly the same 
kinds of burdens are put on both. 

I have seen the Koordish women often carrying, 
up and down the mountain, great loads of hay and 
fuel, many times larger than themselves; so large 
indeed, and so covering them up, that at a little 
distance they look like trees walking. Perhaps a 
heavy load was on their backs and a baby in their 
arms, and at their sides their lords would walk or 

8 



114 Mission Fields. 

ride, unable to support more than their own dignity. 
Every Persian woman expects to be her husband's 
slave, and to be tyrannized over by him without 
restraint. She obeys him to the last degree of ser- 
vility; waits while he eats; veils herself closely and 
oppressively from the time of her marriage; and, 
lest she should speak above a whisper, baudages her 
mouth up tight. Mohammedanism, the religion of 
Persia, sanctions polygamy. Its victims endure lives 
embittered and degraded by its influence, or die of 
broken hearts, and make no sign. Thus treated 
and degraded, it seems as if there were no oppor- 
tunity left for woman in Persia to do aught but to 
sink to the level of the beast. Almost every word 
that has been touchingly said of the women in 
India can be truthfully said of the women of Per- 
sia, and no one can reach the women but women. 

— Mes. Rhea. 

■» ••• If 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What interesting historical association 
has Persia? 

Answer. History and science combine with the 
testimony of Scripture to point out this region as 
the cradle of our race. Persia is notably a Bible 
land. To it belonged Cyrus the Great; Darius, his 
son ; Xerxes — the Ahasuerus of Ezra ; Artaxerxes ; 
Esther; Mordecai; and the "wise men," who were 



Pkrsia. 115 

the first of the Gentile world to greet and worship 
the Messiah. When Assyria had led the Jews cap- 
tive to Babylon, it was Persia which humbled the 
power, and restored Judah to her native land. 

Q. What is the population? 

A. The census is not accurate, but late estimates 
give the population at 8,000,000. Of this number, 
23,000 are Nestorians; 19,000 Jews; 43,000 Ar- 
menians; 675,000 Koords and Sikhs. The remain- 
der of the population comprises Arabs, Turks, Par- 
sees, and Persians. 

Q. Describe the Persian houses. 

A. The houses of the poor people contain one 
long room, with a door in one end, no window, and 
a conical opening in the roof for the smoke to es- 
cape and the light to enter. The roofs are flat, and 
in summer time the people sleep upon them. Some 
houses have an upper room built on the roof, which 
is reached by a ladder on the outside. The rich 
live in well-built two-story houses. One and a half- 
million of the population live in tents during the 
summer. The Persians use no furniture; they eat, 
sit, and sleep on the floors, which are made of 
hard, smooth earth, covered with matting and 
carpet. 

Q. Describe the Persian men. 

A. They are fond of dress and show; very po- 
lite, hospitable, and obliging. They are kind to 
their children ; respectful to their parents, particu- 
larly the father, in whose presence they rarely sit. 



116 Mission Fields. 

Kespect is paid to the aged, and the support of the 
parents is never looked on as a burden. But as a 
race they are very untruthful and procrastinating. 

Q. Is polygamy common? 

A. Not among the poorer classes, but it is gen- 
eral with the rich. Divorces are frequent, and easily 
obtained by all Mohammedans. 

Q. Tell something about education in Persia. 

A. Every city or town has its school for boys, 
held in the mosques, and taught by the Mullahs. 
The children study aloud, and can be heard a half 
a block away. They are all taught to read in Per- 
sian and Arabic; some of them learn to write, and 
learn the use of figures. 

Q. Have the Persians any literature? 

A. There are few books of any kind. The an- 
cient poetry is the principal literature, and the 
quoting of poetry is universal, being frequently in- 
troduced into conversation. 

Q. Are the women educated? 

A. There are no schools for girls, but the daugh- 
ters of the rich are sometimes taught to read and 
write and to recite poetry. 

Q. What is the form of government? 

A. The shah of Persia is regarded as the vice- 
gerent of Mohammed, and as such demands implicit 
obedience. 

Q. Who are the Koords? 

A. They are the mountain tribes of Koordistan, 
and are a wild, lawless people, much given to rob- 



BURMAH. 117 

bery, and making raids on the other tribes or vil- 
lages of the plain. Over 1,000,000 of the Koords 
are subjects of the sultan of Turkey, and about 
750,000 are under Persian rule. 
Q. Who are the Nestorians? 
A, The Nestorians derive their name from Nes- 
torius, patriarch of Constantinople, who lived about 
A. D. 428. The Nestorians of the present day are 
settled on Turkish soil — mainly in Koordistan — and 
on Persian soil in the fertile plain to the west of 
Lake Oroomeeyah. 

Q. Who are the Armenians? * 

A. They are a Christian sect, and are found in 
ancient Armenia, with Tabriz as their center. They 
adhere to the seven sacraments of the Eomish 
Church, perform baptism by immersion, and believe 
in the mediation of saints and the worship of images. 
Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, Presby- 
terian Church. 

BURMAH. 

Burmah is about equal in area to New England, 
the Middle States, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois com- 
bined. Its population is about 10,000,000. There 
are said to be forty-two different races, and between 
the three principal nationalities — the Burmans, 
Shans, and Karens — marked differences exist. The 
Burmans are intelligent, haughty, and indolent. 



118 Mission Fiki^ds. 

The Shans are equally intelligent, less proud, more 
diligent and active. Both tribes are Buddhists. 
The Karens are by far the most docile and lovable. 
They have been crushed by oppressive Burman rule, 
and there is an element of sadness in their disposi- 
tion. They worship spirits, and seem more suscep- 
tible to the gospel. The people of Burmah are a 
hardy race, and are capable of greater things as a 
whole than the people of India. Education to 
some extent is common, as most of the men can 
read and write. They have acquired some of the 
arts of civilization, which they practice in rather a 
crude manner. The people are courteous, and 
rather prepossessing in appearance. They are con- 
tented with little, and much more inclined to sport 
and idleness than to labor. They can not be called 
an industrious people. The resources of the country 
are being rapidly developed. Merchandise is now 
packed on mules, and carried for a distance of a 
thousand miles; but greater railway facilities are 
projected, and, when done, Burmah will rise higher 
in commercial importance. 

Writing of the Karens, and of the treatment 
they receive from the Burmans, Mrs. Armstrong 
says: " Their crops and cattle were stolen, and they 
were caught and sold as slaves, so that they lived 
in constant terror. They bid themselves in the jun- 
gles and the mountain-sides, concealing the paths to 
their bamboo houses, and constantly moving from 
one place to another to avoid detection. Their re- 



BURMAH. 119 

ligion was peculiar to themselves. They lived hon- 
est, truthful lives, were hospitable in their way, and 
had no idols. They made offerings to propitiate 
evil spirits, whom they feared. They had no books ; 
but they had carefully preserved legends, which 
were carefully handed down from father to son. 
Their traditions told that once they had God's Book ; 
but they were disobedient, and their younger brother 
carried it away. Some day their white brother 
would come across the sea in a ship, and bring back 
the Book which told of the Great Father and the 
life to come. They must watch for its coming. No 
wonder such a people should receive the gospel 
when it came. No people have ever been discovered 
who were so prepared for it, and whose very preju- 
dices were on its side. When missionaries came 
among them, their old men said, 'This is what our 
fathers told us of!' Their simple faith took Christ 
at his word. They did not question, but believed." 

Social life in Burmah is freer, happier, and 
more comfortable than in many parts of Asia. 
Young people marry earlier than in America; and 
are not fettered for life by marriages made by their 
parents in their childhood, as in some countries. 

The appearance of Burman houses evinces the 
indolent and aimless life of their occupants. Often 
built of bamboo and thatch — which a few days' 
labor may cut in the neighboring jungle — without a 



120 Mission Fields. 

single nail or screw, and without the expenditure of 
money, it suffices for their comfort. Three rooms 
constitute the house, which is built upon posts, and 
underneath are kept any animals the family may have. 

Children go without clothing until about eight 
years old. Babies learn to smoke and chew the 
betel-nut, and other herbs, before they are two 
years old. 

As a people the Burmans are very musical, and 
music enters largely into all matters of social im- 
portance ; and the love of it finds expression in 
the manufacture and employment of a variety of in- 
struments. 

They have no Sabbath ; but every eighth day - 
from the new moon is a worship-day, and special 
offerings are carried to the pagodas. The social ele- 
ment enters largely into the religious observances. 
At their holy festival they make costly offerings to 
the priests and idols, the men decorating the idol- 
houses with images, and the women giving robes to 
the priests. They give always of their best to 
their gods. 

Children, even, are trained to give to the idols 
some of their pretty things that they would much 
rather keep for themselves. Oriental children, as 
well as their seniors, are carefully taught in the 
great lesson of giving, and they practice it always 
and everywhere — to their gods, their friends, the 
priests, the poor, and the stranger. Hospitality to 
strangers is the cardinal virtue of the East; and al- 



BURMAH. 121 

most any Oriental, rich or poor, would rather starve 
himself than suffer his guest to want. 

While the Buddhist priests claim to be learned, 
they are shamefully ignorant. They pose as the ed- 
ucators of the people; but really keep them in ig- 
norance, and teach men to abhor work and contract 
habits of indolence. 

The expense in the matter of beautifying their 
temples is never considered with the Buddhists. 
The description of one of many we give: "The 
vane is about three by one and a half feet broad, 
and thickly crusted with precious stones and fans of 
red Burmese gold. One ruby alone is worth $3,000, 
and there are several hundred rubies on it. On the 
tips of the iron rod on which works the vane is a 
richly carved and perforated gold ornament. It is 
a foot in height, tipped by an enormous diamond, 
encircled by many smaller ones. All over this ex- 
quisite object are similar clumps of diamonds, no 
other stones being used for that part." 

In Burmah, women occupy a more independent 
position than is usual in heathen lands. They man- 
age their household, go about freely, and even en- 
gage in trade and accumulate property. It is not 
considered necessary that women should know any- 
thing but their housework, so they are not given the 
education that men are; yet they are said to be 
about as intelligent as the men. 



122 Mission Pleads. 

Among young girls, the boring of the ears for 
ear-rings is quite an important ceremony. A sooth- 
sayer fixes upon a fortunate day, and at the ap- 
pointed time a feast is prepared. The professional 
ear-borer is promptly on hand, with his gold and 
silver needles; and amid the shrieks of the young 
lady victims and the shouting of the older women, 
who hold them down, the holes are made, and pieces 
of string are inserted. This is but the first stage of 
the process. Day by day the. piece of string is 
pulled, and drawn backward and forward, until the 
sides are healed ; and then the process of widening 
the hole is commenced. This is done by means of 
plugs. Then the na-doung are inserted, which are 
tubes or cylinders of colored glass, or precious stones 
and metal. A Burmese girl is not considered mar- 
riageable until her ears are bored. 

When a young man wishes a girl for his wife, 
he goes to her house, and makes known his wishes 
to her parents. If he is accepted, the girl is called, 
and makes an examination of the youth's back, to 
see if he has been tattooed according to custom. If 
not, she will not marry him. 

> If they marry, the marriage-feast lasts three 
days; after which the newly married pair remain 
with the bride's parents a few days, while the people 
of the village are building a house for the young 
couple. As soon as this is done, they get a rice-pot, 
and set up for themselves. 

In the worship of her religion, woman in Bur- 



EURMAH. 123 

mah, as elsewhere, is most zealous. Old women 
may be seen tottering up to the pagodas, and, un- 
rolling old, soiled handkerchiefs, depositing upon the 
idols a precious stone or some gold, perhaps the sav- 
ings of years. 

A fond mother will fasten her babe upon her 
back, and toil on foot over mountains and valleys, 
fording streams, pillowed by night on the ground 
and canopied by the sky, in the hope that sometime 
during his life her child may make the requisite 
number of pilgrimages to the pagoda, and that this 
may be counted as one of them; though she fail, 
she trusts that he may attain the desired haven. If 
she herself has led a meritorious life* she may hope 
to exist as a man in the other world. 

The entire history of mission-work in Burmnh 
constitutes one of the most thrilling romances of 
modern times. 

Men who were once ignorant and debased sav- 
ages have been transformed into earnest, God-fearing 
husbands and fathers, whose brave, active lives of 
self-sacrifice are constantly bringing in harvests of 
souls. Their wives are leading sweet, Christian 
lives, and their daughters are being educated in all 
that develops and crowns a true w T omanhood. About 
thirty years ago, at Mandalay, when King Theebaw 
w r as inaugurated, seven hundred people were mas- 
sacred to celebrate the event. Recently, a Baptist 



124 Mission Fields. 

church was dedicated in the same city, and $4,000 
of the church-debt was paid for by Burmese 
converts. 

One-third of the Karens are now said to be 
Christians. They tithe the produce of their laud 
for the support of their pastors, and also send mis- 
sionaries to Siam. A marked characteristic of their 
piety is their enthusiasm in foreign mission-work. 
They have their foreign missionary society, and send 
out their young men north and east to distant 
countries, supporting them there, and re-enforcing 
them as the need arises. These have established 
Churches among those tribes, and have done a grand 
evangelistic work, independent of other missionaries, 
in the face of persecution and long separation from 
homes, and from privileges of Christian intercourse 
with those they love. "When I was in charge of 
a mission station," says a missionary, "an old Karen 
pastor came one day with a large contribution for 
the foreign missionary work. I said to him : ' How 
can your people give so much? I know they are 
very poor, the overflow of the river has swept away 
your crops, your cattle are dying of disease — it is 
the famine time with you!' '0/ he replied, with 
such a contented smile, 'it only means rice without 
curry!' They could live on rice and salt, but they 
would not live without giving the Bread of Life to 
their brethren." 

One evangelist alone, near Kangoon, supported 
at a cost of only sixty dollars a year, has scores of 



BURMAH. 125 

converts yearly. Some one asks if that is not a 
paying investment? 

Among the first converts was a man who helped 
to translate the Bible into the Karen tongue, and 
for fifteen years guided the missionaries through the 
jungles, and then himself began to preach and to 
plant new Churches. In one year he had formed 
nine, with over 700 converts; in less than three 
years the nine had grown to thirty, with 2,000 con- 
verts. He did his work without salary, and when 
offered positions with large compensations he at 
once declined. This one man, whom no bait of 
money or position or personal ease could win to 
leave his holy and unselfish w T ork, is an unanswerable 
proof that a higher power than man works in 
Christianity. 

Christianity continues to spread, and the Chris- 
tian communities are distinctly more industrious and 
better educated than other Burman villages around 
them. The Government Report says: "The Karen 
race and the British Government owe a great debt 
to the American missionaries, who have wrought 
this change in Burmah." 

*!• ••• & 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What can be told of the inhabitants of 
Burmah? 

Answer. It is thought that there is no country 



126 Mission Fields. 

in the world whose people are more varied in race, 
language, and customs than Burmah. 

Q. How long has Buddhism prevailed in 
Burmah ? 

A. For more than five centuries before Christ. 

Q. What are some of the changes made since 
Christianity was introduced? 

A. Besides Churches, excellent schools and col- 
lege^, for both boys and girls, have been established. 
The exports of the country yield millions of dollars 
more; and the country now imports annually about 
$35,000,000 worth of various goods, which are said 
to consist largely of luxuries, rather than neces- 
sities. 

Q. What is said in " Miracles of Missions" about 
Burmah? 

A. Burmah has not only taken her stand among 
the givers, but a few years ago ranked third in the 
list of donors to the Baptist Missionary Union — only 
Massachusetts and New York outranking her! 
Fifty years ago in idolatry, now an evangelizing 
power ! Their liberality puts to shame the so-called 
benevolence of our Christians at home. 

Q. Wfiat was one of many cruel experiences 
that came to Dr. Judson, the first missionary to 
Burmah? 

A. He was cast into prison, and part of the 
time was during the hottest season of the year. He 
was shut up, with some hundred Burmese robbers, 
in a cell that had no window, and they were so 



BURMAH. 127 

jammed together that he could not find room to 
stretch himself. It was a rare luxury when he ob- 
tained the reversion of a lion's cage, after the poor 
animal had been starved to death. The head-jailer, 
himself a branded murderer, was an incarnation of 
cruelty. After a time, Mrs. Judson contrived, 
partly by presents and partly by appeals, to have 
the rigor of his bondage somewhat relaxed; and 
she kept up secret communications with him by 
writing on flat cakes, which were concealed in bowls 
of rice, and by stuffing scraps of paper into the 
mouth of an old coffee-pot. Mrs. Judson had man- 
aged to secrete the manuscript of his translations of 
the Bible in the earth beneath the mission-house; 
but the rainy season came on, and they were likely 
to be ruined with the dampness. In his dungeon 
he was anxious about them, and he arranged with 
her to sew them up in a pillow, so mean in its ap- 
pearance, and so comfortless withal, that the covet- 
ousness of even a Burman jailer should not be 
excited by it. When he was sent to another prison- 
house, at Oung-pen-la, w T hich he reached with bleeding 
feet, the ruffian jailers seized for themselves the mat 
which covered the precious pillow, and threw the 
apparently useless article away. Moung Ing found 
the relic, and carried it to the mission-house, and 
so Burmah afterwards obtained the Bible in her 
native tongue. 



128 Mission Fields. 



SIAM AND LAOS. 

In Siam, with its ten million inhabitants, there 
are only about a score of missionaries working 
among the native Siamese and Laos people, every 
minister having an average parish of a million 
souls. There are cities with a population of two 
hundred thousand which have not even a Bible- 
reader or native teacher. 

No mission-field stands in greater need of 
workers than Siam. Life in that land is not an 
exile, nor a dreary, lonely burying of one's self 
away from the rest of the world. In all the wide 
kingdom of Siam, with her open ports, her doors 
ajar — inviting missionary effort from all Christian 
lands — and her ten millions of Buddhist heathen, 
there is but a handful of workers who can teach and 
preach in the native tongue. Think of it! And 
America is full of Christian men and women who 
profess to have given themselves to God, and to 
have consecrated all they have to his service ! 

— M. L. Cokt. 

•a- ••• ■& 

Old women in Siam, whose religion has done 
nothing for their welfare in this life, and which 
promises absolutely nothing for them as women in 



SlAM AND IyAOS. 129 

the future, are still the most zealous adherents of 
Buddhism in the land. If the women of Siam 
would to-day cease to believe in and practice Bud- 
dhism, it would soon drop from its already tottering 
throne, and woman could at once assume and main- 
tain a higher and nobler position. 

Siam is as large as New England and all the Mid- 
dle States; it is larger than Japan; and its popula- 
tion equals that of Persia or Burmah, Sweden or 
Belgium. In area it is four times as large as the 
State of New York. Few lands are more open to 
the gospel. Her millions are all accessible to the 
Christian missionary, whose right to travel and 
build school-houses and churches anywhere is not 
disputed. 

As a people the Siamese are pleasant, good-na- 
tured, hospitable, kind to their children, but indo- 
lent to the utmost degree, and deceitful. Their 
greatest vices are lying, gambling, immorality, and 
intemperance. Some of the young men and women 
are quite handsome, and the little children beautiful 
in features as a rule. The Siamese and their near 
kinsmen, the Laos, make up three-fourths of the 
whole population; the other fourth is composed of 
Chinese and other nationalities. The Chinese, in 
many cases, marry Siamese women, and the children 
of such unions make one of the most promising ele- 
ments in the population, combining the superior 

9 



130 Mission Fields. 

energy of the Chinese with the vivacity and quick- 
ness of the Siamese. 

The prevailing religion and the education of a 
country usually stand side by side, and aid each 
other. Their united influence is sometimes to spread 
sunshine and prosperity over the land, and some- 
times to fasten the chains of superstition and blight 
the moral feelings of the entire nation. Siam is no 
exception to the general rule. For centuries the 
Buddhist temples have been the only temples of 
learning, and the country abounds in priests. It 
would seem as if Siam ought to be a highly edu- 
cated country, when these mendicant teachers form 
one-thirtieth part of the entire population, and 
when the custom of the country is such that parents 
usually require their sons to spend all the years of 
boyhood and youth under the care of these teachers 
in the temples. 

In their social customs the Siamese present sev- 
eral points of interest to the student of missions. 
The rich Siamese have many of the comforts and 
luxuries of life. They have numerous slaves and 
attendants. But polygamy fills the houses with im- 
morality, bitter jealousies, and strife, and thus there 
are no homes. 

The nobles have erected many handsome houses, 
which are planned by European architects, and 
some are furnished with English, French, and Chi- 
nese furniture. 



SlAM AND I,AOS. 131 

The middle class dwell in houses built of wood, 
usually unpainted teak, and roofed with earthen 
tiles. They are small, and in them the people hud- 
dle together, from the parents to the children of the 
third and fourth generation. They have very little 
furniture. On visiting them first you might think 
they had just moved in, and that the furniture 
would come along presently; but if you called ten 
years later you would find it had not yet arrived. 
The lower class live in huts, made of bamboo and 
thatched with leaves. Nearly all dwellings are 
built on posts or pillars, which elevate them a few 
feet from the ground; and are reached by ladders, 
which at night are often drawn up to prevent dogs 
or thieves from coming in the house. 

All ordinary houses must have three rooms; in- 
deed, so important is this considered to the comfort 
of the family that the suitor must often promise to 
provide three rooms, ere the parents will let him 
claim his bride. 

There is the common bedroom; an outer room, 
where they sit during the day and receive their 
visitors; and the kitchen. Thus it will be seen 
that house-life among the Siamese is very simple and 
primitive. 

As for wearing apparel, they scarcely have on 
any; and, as a nation, do not know what shame is. 
As the climate is mild and pleasant, and the ma- 
jority of the people poor and careless, their usual 
dress consists of a waist-cloth. When foreigners 



132 Mission Fields. 

first arrive they are shocked almost beyond endur- 
ance at the nudity of the people. 

They are great bathers, and several times daily 
they may be seen splashing in the rivers or canals. 
There is no privacy — eyes are everywhere; and 
they think no more of bathing themselves and their 
children in the open street than of buying a bunch 
of lettuce from the market-woman. 

The parents have a great love for their children ; 
but the latter are allowed to do just as they please 
until the parents become angry, and then are pun- 
ished. The hand of a little one is sometimes bent 
back until the child writhes in agony. Reverence 
for parents and for the aged and for those in au- 
thority is most universally taught over the kingdom. J 

— Siam and Laos: 
Presbyterian Board of Publication. 

■* ••• -te 

Women in Siam enjoy greater liberty than in 
almost any other Oriental land. You meet them 
everywhere ; and, in the bazaars and markets, nearly 
all the buying and selling is done by them. As 
servants and slaves they are seen performing all 
sorts of labor in the open streets, for they are deemed 
inferior to men. While there have always been 
schools for boys, there have been no native schools 
for girls. The daughters are not supposed to need 
any education, and are trained from childhood to 
help their mothers with all kinds of work. Thus it 



SlAM AND IyAOS. 133 

comes to pass that the girls grow to be the " hewers 
of wood and drawers of water." If you ask a 
woman how she makes her living, she usually has 
some answer ready; you very seldom find one who 
has nothing to do. But if you ask a man the same 
question, he will often look at you in blank amaze- 
ment ; tell you he lives with his father or mother 
or wife ; and then try to recall the last time he did 
anything, and give that as his work. 

Although the Siamese do not kill their daugh- 
ters, still the sons are a privileged class. The mere 
fact of being a boy is a peculiar mark of merit. 
The country girls have a particularly hard life. 
While their brothers or husbands may be idling in 
the temples, or off gambling or sleeping, they are 
plowing and planting in the fields. 

A fondness for jewelry seems to be a passion 
with the young girls, and they will deny themselves 
needed food and clothes to buy a gold ring or chain 
for their dusky bodies. Many a girl refuses to wear 
a jacket because it would cover up her chains, 
which are worn as a hunter carries his game-bag — 
over one shoulder and under the arm. All the 
people are fond of jewelry, which many times is the 
only adornment that the body can boast. 

Many Siamese men have several wives at a time, 
but they do not marry all in the same way. They 
pay a sum of money for each; but often all cere- 
mony is laid aside after the first marriage, save pay- 
ing the money. They build a little house for each, 



134 Mission Fields. 

or assign her a small suite of rooms in the mansion, 
if men of wealth and position. Polygamy is not as 
common among the lower classes, because of inability 
to support more than one wife at a time; but a wife 
can be put away or left at will. 

Motherhood is considered honorable, and infant- 
icide is rare. 

Many old women are reduced to abject slavery 1 , 
and they have to serve their masters to the utmost 
of their strength by working in the field or going 
out to beg. 

Notwithstanding her degradation and the scorn 
she has to bear, the woman exerts a mighty influ- 
ence. It is true that " woman keeps the idol on 
its pedestal," and it is the mother who trains her 
children to idolatry. Therefore the real conversion 
of one heathen woman, says one, "will do more to- 
wards the advancement of Christianity than that of 
ten men;" and yet it is more difficult to win the 
women to accept the truth than the men, not be- 
cause they are less religious, but more so, and are 
more wedded to Buddhism. 

— M. L. Cort, Siam and Laos* 

The extent of territory covered by the Laos 
provinces is supposed to be one-half as great as 
Siam, and the population as dense. If so, it is a 
country almost as large as Italy, and containing 
from four to five millions of people. It is an in- 



Si AM AND IyAOS. 135 

land country, and. only leached from the south by 
small boats or elephants. Although bound in a 
common interest to Siam, they have a certain inde- 
pendence of each other even yet. 

The Laosians are a kind, affectionate people, 
caring much for their family life, and morally su- 
perior to the races around them. They are a finer, 
hardier-looking race than the average Siamese, and 
possess many qualities of attractiveness, yet have 
some semi-barbarous customs. They are Buddhists 
and devil-worshipers, and are full of superstitious 
fears. They believe that nearly all illness is pro- 
duced by witchery, and their treatment of the sup- 
posed witches is most cruel and inhuman. They 
banish them from their families, from their towns, 
and burn down their houses, and hundreds yearly 
are banished in that manner; or, many times, their 
bodies are tortured to a sickening extent. "We 
have attempted to aid individual victims," says one 
missionary, "by making our premises places of 
refuge, and enablijg those who had been driven 
from home to find work and protection ; but we are 
helpless before this wide-spread and degrading pros- 
titution of the human intellect. " 

When a person dies, a precious stone or coin is 
sometimes placed in the mouth of the corpse to pay 
the spirit-fine into the next world. 

Life in Laos is exceedingly monotonous. There 
are no fine houses or palaces for the most part, and 
princes and peasants build much on the same plan. 



136 Mission Fields. 

The women do much of the hard work in the field, 
as well as in the household. Rich and poor women 
alike spend much time in making garments for the 
priests. Many are skilled in embroidery. The dress 
of the Laosian women is very unlike that of the 
Siamese; it is more complete and modest. Unmar- 
ried women wear a flower in the hair, and the ask- 
ing for this flower by a young man is equivalent to 
offering his heart and hand. 

The habits of social and domestic life present 
some striking contrasts to those of most heathen 
natives. Women are kindly treated, and the baby 
daughter is cared for as tenderly as the little son; 
child-marriage is unknown, and old age is respected. 
Marriage is not as much a matter of trade as it 
usually is among heathen people. 

The great need of Laos is a better outlet for 
trade. At present those little kingdoms are prac- 
tically shut in from the outside nations. Missionaries 
laboring there are more isolated from the rest of the 
world than at most stations. 

$1- ••• -fr 

4 RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What is the government of Siam? 
Answer. It is an absolute monarchy. 
Q. What is the religion? 

A. Buddhism. One-third of the population of 
the whole earth are Buddhists. Buddhism teaches 



SlAM AND, IyAOS. 137 

that the world and all things in it came into being 
without a creator; that the soul at death passes 
into the body of some human being, or some ani- 
mal; that it may be thus born thousands of times; 
that the thing most to be desired is, to make so 
much merit that the soul will at last go where 
Buddha has Himself gone, into "Nepon," which is 
a kind of eternal sleep or annihilation. 

Q. Are there many idols in the country? 

A. The land is full of them. They are every- 
where — in the homes, in the temples, on the hill- 
tops, and in the caves. 

Q. Do the Siamese practice polygamy? 

A. Among the higher classes polygamy is uni- 
versal. The late king had 120 wives. 

Q. What of some of the characteristics of the 
Laos? 

A. They resemble very much the Siamese in 
customs and religion, but are more industrious and 
less deceitful. 

Q. What are some of the changes in Siam? 

A. "We can not tell when Siam's rivers first 
ran to the sea, nor for how many centuries the 
stream of humanity, which had its rise in the North, 
has been flowing through the kingdom ; but we do 
know that only a few years ago was the gospel in- 
troduced, and a little stream of the gospel floods, 
which are yet destined to cover the whole earth, 
began to trickle into the hearts and lives of these 
poor benighted ones, bringing light and refreshment 



138 Mission Fields. 

with every drop of its life-giving waters. Not one- 
half century ago, Siam was sealed against the en- 
trance of all foreigners; but now, next to Japan, 
she is perhaps the foremost heathen nation in the 
march towards Western civilization. To-day she is 
in treaty relation with all Christian countries ; and 
the present king has been classed among the most 
humane and liberal of heathen monarchs, doing 
much for the improvement of his country. Large 
mercantile transactions mark the period of progress; 
telegraph and postal systems are in full operation; 
and all the change in the country is said to have 
been effected by the influence of Protestant mission- 
aries, who have established schools for girls and 
boys, introduced the printing-press, and have trans- 
lated the Bible and other books into the native 
language. Some of the material results brought 
about by their work is shown in the item that, in 
one year, $16,000 worth of hats and caps were im- 
ported into the city of Bangkok alone, for the 
king's courtiers." — Mks. S. E. House. 



KOREA. 
./ 

There are 358 cities in Korea, of from 10,000 
to 350,000 inhabitants, only two of which — Seoul 
and Fusan — are said to be occupied by Protestant 
missions. 



Korea. 139 

For Korea's 12,000,000 people the total supply 
of missionaries, of all denominations, ordained and 
unordained, men and women, is thirty-two workers, 
or one missionary to 375,000 people. 

Korea in size is equal to Virginia and North 
Carolina. "It is altogether a strange country, this 
Hermit Kingdom," says an English writer. "The 
pale, monotonous colors affected by the common 
people in their dress, the noiseless way in which 
they move about, the total lack of wheeled vehicles, 
the absence of street-cries, or, indeed, of shouting 
of any sort, have a most weird effect; and, as one 
passes through the white-clad, silent multitude, one 
almost finds himself wondering whether it is all real, 
and whether one has not been suddenly transported 
into dream-land." 

The Koreans are more allied to the Chinese than 
to the Japanese; yet in language, politics, and so- 
cial customs, they are different from both. They 
are less conservative than the Chinese, and not so 
progressive as the Japanese. They are generous 
and hospitable. As a race they are strong and vig- 
orous, with natural talent and wit. Their educa- 
tional and commercial methods are very primitive. 
They attach themselves with almost child-like confi- 
dence to strangers and foreigners, when once they 
begin to trust them. 

Like the Chinese, the people worship their an- 



140 Mission Fields. 

cestors ; but there seems to be no one distinct re- 
ligion. 

The country is pagan — pagan in its life, its re- 
ligion, its morals. One says: "Heathenism in India 
is vile; in China, defiant; in Japan, desperate; in 
Korea, indifferent ; in Africa, triumphant. No bet- 
ter term can be used to describe Korea than * indif- 
ferent.' While fervor and zeal may be found in the 
monasteries, the great mass of the people seem skep- 
tical and indifferent." 

The educated classes are Confucianists ; the com- 
mon people are nominally Buddhists. Hence it 
follows that, not being bound down by a long 
slavery to any religion, they are more open to the 
gospel than other Eastern people. None among 
the races of the Asiatic continent, it is maintained, 
can more easily be rendered accessible to a true and 
sincere religious feeling than the Korean. 

Korea gave religion, letters, and art to Japan; 
and in one of their invasions into Korea, the Jap- 
anese carried away many of the best workmen — 
artists, designers, scholars, teachers, astronomers, and 
priests. Now Korea seems poor and uncivilized 
compared with Japan. The two nationalities differ 
so much from each other as to have hardly a single 
feature in common, though at the nearest point they 
are only forty miles apart. In manners the Ko- 
reans are rude among themselves and rude to for- 



Korea. 141 

eigners. They are indolent and dirty, and they 
will not work if they can help it. A lack of neat- 
ness and cleanliness is manifest about everything. 

Sleeping apartments are used for every purpose. 
The bed is on the hard floor, and the head rests on 
blocks of wood. The principal food, as in other 
Oriental countries, is rice; mustard and pepper are 
used in abundance; and some one has said: " What 
a Korean lacks in rice or fish, he makes up in cay- 
enne-pepper. ,, Among gentlemen of high rank it 
is the custom when one visits another to take with 
him, not only presents, but all the food he will re- 
quire, and food for the family he visits. 

The lumber merchants of this little kingdom sell 
an interesting red-and-black wood, a kind of oak, 
that will remain under water a hundred years with- 
out decaying. 

The Korean language has many proverbs and 
pithy sayings in it that surprise and entertain one: 
Beaconsfield's "Critics are men who have failed in 
literature and art," has this Korean echo, "Good 
critic, bad worker." "I am I, another is another," 
is a formula of selfishness, and Korean for Ego et 
non ego — "I and not I." 

* ••• -t£ 

A correspondent writes thus of Korean women : 
"All their life is lived in the few rooms assigned 
them ; cooking, sleeping, washing their clothes, with 
not the slightest bit of mental culture, make up 



142 Mission Fields. 

their daily routine. There is little beauty among 
them; their faces are pallid, and sadness and weari- 
ness mark their countenances. The apartments 
among the higher classes resemble, in most respects, 
the zenanas of India. A Korean woman is an in- 
strument of pleasure or of labor, but never man's 
companion or equal. The women below the middle 
class work very hard. Farm labor is done chiefly 
by them. Women are not allowed upon the street 
until after sunset. At about nine in the summer, 
or half-past eight in the winter, the bell is tolled, 
and no man must be seen abroad. Then women 
walk out to take the air. They are sometimes seen 
in the day-time walking in the streets, but covered 
all over with a long cloak, with a hood closely 
drawn over the head and face, so that their features 
are hidden from the gaze of men ; but only elderly 
women are allowed this freedom. The very poor 
women, old or young, can go with their faces un- 
covered. Younger women, except of the very poor- 
est, are scarcely ever seen in public. In the streets 
a man will step aside to let a woman pass him, and 
hold a fan before his face lest he should catch a 
glimpse of her. Dr. Allen said he was called one 
day to see the king's mother, who was ill; but he 
only saw about one square inch of the old lady. 
She was screened by curtains, and her hand was 
completely bandaged except the place where he was 
to feel her pulse." 

Infanticide is forbidden by law, and scarcely 



Korea. 143 

ever practiced. In " Korea, the Hermit Nation/' 
Ave read: "In the higher classes of society etiquette 
demands that the children of the two sexes be sep- 
arated after the age of eight or ten years. After 
that time the boys dwell entirely in the men's apart- 
ments, to study, and even to eat and drink. The 
girls remain secluded in the women's quarters. 
These customs, continued from childhood to old age, 
result in destroying the family life. In the higher 
classes, when a young woman has arrived at mar- 
riageable age, none of her relatives, except those 
nearest of kin, are allowed to see or speak to her. 
After marriage, women are inaccessible. They are 
nearly always confined to their apartments, nor can 
they even look out into the streets without permis- 
sion of their lords. So strict is this rule that fathers 
have, on occasion, killed their daughters, husbands 
their wives, and wives have committed suicide wdien 
strangers have touched them even with their fingers. 
The common romances or novels of the country ex- 
patiate on the merits of many a Korean Lucre tia. 

"Marriage is a thing with the arrangements for 
w 7 hich a woman has little or nothing to do. The 
father of the young man communicates with the 
father of the girl whom he wishes his son to marry. 
This is often done without consulting the tastes or 
character of either. On the wedding-day the young 
bride must preserve absolute silence. Though over- 
whelmed with questions and compliments, silence is 
her duty. She must sit mute and impassive as a 



144 Mission Fields. 

statue. If she utters a word or makes a gesture 
she is the cause of gossip in her husband's house. 
The female servants place themselves in a peeping 
position, to listen or look through the windows, and 
are sure to publish what they see. 

"It is not deemed proper for widows to remarry. 
In the higher classes a widow is expected to weep 
for her deceased husband, and to wear mourning 
all her life. But second marriages among the lowly 
are quite frequent. The men must have their food 
prepared for them, and women can not and do not 
willingly die of famine when a husband offers 
himself. " 

Though counting for nothing in society, and 
nearly so in their families, yet the women are sur- 
rounded by a certain sort of respect; and, habitu- 
ated from infancy to their yoke, most women submit 
to their lot with exemplary resignation. 

•* ••• & 

A little almond-eyed Chinese boy stood swing- 
ing the silken cradle of a beautiful baby. As it 
swung to and fro, so did the long queue of Ah 
Fung. But there was no music in his heart by 
which to time the steady and monotonous swinging. 
It was a sad little face that looked wistfully ahead; 
and the child's thoughts were far away in Ningpo 
with his father, from whom he had been cruelly 
stolen and sold as a slave. Homesick tears were in 
his eyes, and his wide, loose jacket-sleeve was now 



KorKA. 145 

and then drawn across his wet che^k ; for boy-nature 
is the same there as here. 

"What is the matter with you, Ah Fung? 
Do n't you see my beautiful baby ? I was unhappy, 
too; but now" — and the sweet young mother, into 
whose face a new light had lately shone and ban- 
ished the deep-seated unhappiness and discontent, 
bent over and caressed her treasure. 

She was the unloved wife of a rich officer, and 
from the time her husband had presented Ah Fung 
to her, she had made a pet and companion of him. 
On account of her own loneliness, they had become 
sympathizing friends. 

Ah Fung dried his tears, and looked seriously at 
the baby and mother. 

"Shall I tell you about my Jesus?" he asked. 

"O no, Ah Fung! Tell Ah Fung mamma 
does not need Jesus now — she has her baby," cooed 
the poor mother. "He shall tell her about his 
Jesus by and by. By and by, Ah Fung, by and 
by," she said. 

But by and by the delicate blossom began to 
fade and droop. Paler and thinner the little face 
became, till by and by the mother, in the extremity 
of her grief, saw the only thing she had to love 
pass into the dark, mysterious eternity. 

Ah Fung was the child of a converted Chinese. 
His father had come over to Seoul, Korea, to trade, 
aud brought the little boy with him ; but in a crowd 
the child was separated from him, stolen, and sold. 

10 



146 Mission Fields. 

He was old enough to commit his way to the Lord, 
and know that it was all right somehow. 

And now he saw, as Naaman's little maid did, that 
he had come there for a purpose ; and he forgot his 
own great grief in his desire to minister true com- 
fort to the mother. 

He was awed and silenced by her sorrow; but 
one day she remembered how often he had tried to 
tell her of " Jesus and his love." 

"Ah Fung," she said, "tell me about your 
Jesus." 

And Ah Fung, with the true tact of a child, 
began where he knew it would mean the most to 
her, and told her of Jesus' love to children, and 
the beautiful home where he took them to keep 
and make happy till the parents should come. 

Day after day he talked about it till the mother's 
yearning heart made her lips frame the question: 

"Did He love my baby? Are you sure she is 
with him?" 

"I am sure he did love her and that she is with 
him," replied Ah Fung. "Our missionary said he 
has many, many little children there, and he makes 
them very happy. He will give her back to you if 
you go there." 

"But where is it? How can I get there?" ea- 
gerly asked the tearful mother." 

"I don't quite know," said Ah Fung; "but if 
we love him and trust it to him, he will take us 
somehow. He said so. Won't you let Jesus be 



Korea. 147 

your Savior, too?" asked Ah Fung. "And then 
we '11 both go there, and he will give our darling 
back to us." 

"A little child shall lead them." Ah Fung's 
preaching was not in vain. This mother was the 
first convert to Christianity in Korea, which was so 
long shut up to foreign nations. It is now open to 
the preaching of the gospel. 

Many efforts have been made to carry the truth 
into Korea; but Ah Fung, the little captive, has 
the honor of having sowed the first fruit-bearing 
seed. — Word, Work, and World. 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What is Korea often called? 

Answer. The "Hermit Kingdom," because it was 
so long shut away from other nations. It was un- 
known even by name in Europe until the sixteenth 
century. There are records of its history extending 
back for four thousand years, but its more reliable 
history commences about A. D. 200. 

Q. What is its size? 

A. It has an estimated area of 82,000 square 
miles. # 

Q. To whom has Korea been partially subject? 

A. To China, for over 1,800 years. 

Q. What is its government? 

A. An absolute monarch v. 



148 Mission Fields. 

Q. What is the language of the people? v 

A. It is intermediate between Mongolo-Tartar 
and Japanese; but the Chinese system of writing is 
used. The Koreans have possessed the art of print- 
ing since the eighth century. 

Q. In what kind of houses do they live? 

A. They are small ; generally built of stones and 
mud; but one story high, with a garret over it 
where they lay up their provisious. 

Q. How do the people dress? 

A. The ordiuar}^ dress is white, and that of the 
officials blue. The women also wear blue garments, 
and have a green border to the cloak, which is worn 
over the head, and with which they conceal their 
faces from the gaze of the foreigners. The mourn- 
ing color is yellow. 

Q. What is said of their appearance? 

A. They are tall. In complexion they are lighter 
than the Japanese; some are even ruddy, and have 
clear skins. 

Q. What is the character of the people? 

A. They are very superstitious. They believe 
the air is filled with malignant spirits, who must be 
propitiated by prayer, gifts, or penance. 

Q. What five things are taught the children? 

A. To obey their father, respect their elder 
brothers, be loyal to the king, respectful to the wife, 
and true to their friends. 

Q. How long since Korea was open to Christian 
nations? 



Japan. 149 

A. As late as 1882 mission-work was prohibited. 
To-day Korea presents a striking illustration of the 
irresistible advance of the kingdom of Christ, and 
presents another miracle in modern missions. The 
king is liberal in his views, and seeks the true in- 
terests of his country. He favors education, and is 
willing to let missionaries teach girls ; and is en- 
thusiastic over medical missionaries and their skill — 
a Christian medical lady now being physician to 
the queen. 

— i-^*t^*g^-* — 



JAPAN. 

Japan has a population of about 40,000,000 
people. About 40,000 of that number are Prot- 
estant Christians; or, one Christian to every thou- 
sand inhabitants. 

& .;. & 

Japan has some 263,207 temples for the worship 
of false gods, and 70,755 priests. For every two 
Christians there are five Buddhist temples, not to 
mention Shinto temples. There are 10,000 more 
head-priests of Buddhism than Protestant Chris- 
tians; and for every single Christian, of every de- 
nomination, at least two Buddhist priests. Japan 
is not yet a Christian country; and there is room 
and need for hundreds, if not thousands, of mis- 
sionaries. 



150 Mission Fields. 

After the muddy rivers, dreary flats, and brown 
hills of China; after the desolate shores of Korea, 
with their unlovely and unwashed people, — Japan 
is a dream of Paradise, beautiful from the first 
green island off the coast to the less picturesque 
hill-top. The houses seem toys, their inhabitants 
dolls, whose manner of life is clean, pretty, and 
artistic. One recognizes the Japanese as the flower 
of the Orient — most polite, refined, light-hearted, 
friendly, and attractive. This is what we read in 
" Jinriksha Days in Japan," by Miss Bacon. 

The Japanese have a written history which 
stretches in uninterrupted tale over 2,550 years; 
and their first ruler, of the still reigning family, was 
contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar. In this un- 
broken dynasty, seven of its one hundred and twenty- 
three sovereigns have been women. 

Forty and more millions of people, in less than 
thirty years, have, in this empire, undergone the 
greatest possible revolution in matters of govern- 
ment, commerce, education, and social and religious 
systems. 

Japan, from a state of absolute exclusiveness for 
ages, has come to be the most progressive of Eastern 
nations. Christianity has exerted the most powerful 
influence in bringing about this change, and the 
Japan of old is not the Japan of to-day. The em- 
pire is growing commercially, intellectually, and 
spiritually; recent statistics show surprising results. 
Now, every morning, the streets of the cities and 



Japan. 151 

villages are alive with boys and girls, clattering 
along with their books to the kindergarten, primary, 
grammar, high, or normal school. Every rank in 
life, every grade in learning, may. find its proper 
place in the new school-systems. 

The reports of the progress of Christianity that 
have been given are not overstated. One noticeable 
feature is, that its converts are numerous among the 
young people, and comparatively rare among the 
older people. This is accounted for by the fact that 
the old religions have taken deep root in the minds 
of the older people. 

The type of Christianity now growing up is in- 
tensely missionary. During the past year native 
converts, with average wages of twenty-five cents 
a day, gave $27,000 for mission-work. The prom- 
ise for the future is full of cheer; and yet this does 
not mean that Japan is Christianized, nor does it 
mean that she does not still need missionaries; for 
Japan never needed the presence and guidance of 
the Christian missionary more than now. 

Everywhere in Japan, youth is delightful. 
The country is a realm of babies, and young mothers 
who delight in the romping games of their children. 
The homes are attractive, and always clean ; in the 
poorest house, one can sit down with the same care- 
less pleasure as in the finest. The cleanliness of the 
Japanese is one of his most commendable qualities. 



152 Mission Fields. 

It is apparent in his body, in his house, in his work* 
shop, and no less in the great carefulness and exem- 
plary exactness with which he looks after his fields. 
They are great bathers. Among the lowest classes 
the sexes bathe together, but with a modesty and 
propriety that are inconceivable to a foreigner until 
he has witnessed it. While in the bath they are 
absorbed in their work, and, though chatting and 
laughing, seem utterly unmindful of each other. 
The sexes, except among the lower classes, do not 
intermingle in a friendly way as we do; and to a 
Japanese, Professor Morse says, "the sight of our 
dazzling ball-rooms, with girls in decollete dresses, 
clasped in the arms of their partners and whirling 
at the sound of exciting music, must seem the wild- 
est debauch imaginable. " 

The Japanese are a people of muscle and of 
great physical endurance. The diet of* the working 
classes is entirely of vegetables and fish, and the 
amount of manual labor they perform is prodigious. 
Although there is poverty, there are few beggars; 
for both strong and weak find some occupation. 
The blind men of the country follow the profes- 
sion of massage, and become adepts in giving the 
treatment. 

Infanticide, and other cruel practices peculiar 
to Eastern countries, are unknown. Aged parents 
are never a burden, but are treated with greatest 
love and tenderness; and if times are hard, and 
food and other comforts are scarce, the children 



Japan. 153 

deprive themselves and their children to give to 
their old fathers and mothers. Old age is a time of 
peace and happiness for both men and women. 

■a .;. & 

No one who has seen or known anything of 
Japanese women can deny that they are essentially 
womanly. Sir Edwin Arnold, in speaking of them, 
said that, taken altogether, they seemed so amaz- 
ingly superior to their men-folk as almost to belong 
morally and socially to a higher race. Gentle and 
courteous, sympathetic and womanly, one can not 
fail to love them. They leave the effect on a trav- 
eler's mind, says one, that Japan is a fairy-land of 
grown-up children ; and it is only when one becomes 
well acquainted with the customs of the people that 
one realizes that those bright little creatures, more 
like humming-birds or butterflies than human beings, 
have to bear any of the trials and abuses that are 
the common lot of all mankind. To the casual 
observer they are the happiest and gayest-hearted 
people in the world, w 7 ho, though charmingly gentle 
and naturally well-bred, give one the impression 
that they are almost incapable of the power of 
thinking or have character enough for self-control. 
They are taught self-control from the very first. 
The duty of self-restraint is taught to the little girls 
of the family from the tenderest years; it is their 
great moral lesson. The little girl must sink her- 
self entirely; must give up always to others; must 



154 Mission Fields. 

never show emotions, except such as will be pleas- 
ing to others, — this is the secret of true politeness, 
and must be mastered, if the woman wishes to be 
well thought of aud to lead a happy life. The effect 
of this teaching is seen in the attractive but dignified 
manners of the Japanese women. 

We quote further from "Japanese Girls and 
Women," in which the author says: "As she passes 
from babyhood to girlhood, and from girlhood to 
womanhood, the Japanese woman is the object of 
much love and care. She is taught the manage- 
ment of a house; and is given instruction in books, 
which is corning to be regarded more and more a 
necessity for the women as well as the men." 

Under this discipline she is, at eighteen, a pure, 
sweet, amiable girl, who has reached the marriage- 
able age. Usually she is allowed her own choice in 
regard to whether she will or will not marry a cer- 
tain man ; but she is expected to marry some one, 
and not to take too much time in making up her 
% mind. If she positively dislikes the man who is 
submitted to her for inspection, she is seldom forced 
to marry him ; but no more cordial feeling than 
simple toleration is expected of her before marriage. 
The quiet, undemonstrative love on the part of hus- 
band and wife, though very different from the rav- 
ings of a lover in the nineteenth-century novel, is 
perhaps truer to life. 

The idea of a wife's duty to her husband in- 
cludes no thought of companionship on terms of 



Japan. 155 

equality. She rarely appears with him in public; 
and in all things the husband goes first, the wife 
second. If the husband drops his fan or his hand- 
kerchief, the wife picks it up for him. 

Unlike other Asiatic women, she goes without 
restraint alone through the streets, and is not barred 
out from intercourse with the world. 

Journeying through rural Japan, one is im- 
pressed by the important part played by women in 
the various bread-winning industries. They enter 
bravely into all the work of the men ; and the peas- 
ant and his wife work side by side in the field, eat 
together, and whichever happens to be the stronger 
in character, governs the house without regard to sex. 

One can not speak of the conditions of women 
in any country without mentioning the children, 
and the most characteristically Japanese of all Jap- 
anese sights are the little children. Babies are 
carried about tied to the mother's back, or to that 
of their small sisters. They sleep with their heads 
rolling helplessly round, or watch all that goes on 
with their black beads of eyes, and seldom cry. As 
soon as she can walk, the Japanese girl has her doll 
tied on her back, until she learns to carry it steadily 
and carefully. After that, the baby brother or sister 
succeeds the doll ; and flocks of these comical little 
people, with lesser people on their backs, wander 
late at night in the streets with their parents, and 
their funny, double sets of eyes shine in every 
audience. 



156 Mission Fields. 

The patience of the mother is remarkable. She 
seems to govern her children entirely by gentle ad- 
monition; and the severest chiding that is given 
them is in a pleasant voice, and accompanied by a 
smiling face. Nothing, in all one's study of Jap- 
anese life, seems more beautiful and admirable than 
the influence of the mother over her children — an 
influence that is gentle and all-pervading, bringing 
out all that is sweetest in the feminine character. 
The higher part of her nature, however, is little 
developed. No great religious truths have lifted 
her soul above the world into a higher and holier 
atmosphere. 

* ••• ft 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. How large is Japan? 

Answer. The land area of the numerous islands 
which comprise the empire is very nearly 150,000 
square miles. 

Q. What are the religions? 

A. The two great religions are Shintoism and 
Buddhism. Buddhism was introduced from Korea. 
Japan is a country of wayside shrines, images, and 
temples without number. Some of the great tem- 
ples in Kioto are capable of holding 5,000 persons, 
and some contain as many as 3,000 life-sized gilt 
images of saints and gods. 

Q. What reforms have been carried out by the 
mikado ? 



Japan. 157 

A. Encouragement of the press, there being 
hundreds of periodicals — political, literary, and sci- 
entific — dailies, weeklies, and monthlies; establish- 
ment of a national post ; reform of marriage laws ; 
adoption of railways, telegraphs, light-houses, steam- 
ships, arsenals, and dock-yards; a civil service of 
foreign employees; and the legal observance of the 
Christian Sabbath. 

Q. Do art and science flourish? 

A. In science, the Japanese have cultivated 
medicine, astronomy, and mathematics. In chem- 
istry and botany they have considerable knowledge. 
In the art of design they show great taste. All the 
people are fond of reading, and circulating libraries 
are carried on men's backs from house to house. 
Their dramas are largely founded on national his- 
tory and tradition. They are fond of the theater; 
the actors are regarded as a very low class. 

Q. How far is Japan from China? 

A. Four hundred and twenty miles. 

Q. How far from California? 

A. Five thousand miles. 

Q. How has the door of Japan been so widely 
opened to Christian influence? 

A. Because of the eagerness of the people to 
adopt foreign customs. 

Q. What is the sacred mountain of the empire? 

A. Fusiyama; and every year hundreds of pil- 
grims travel, sometimes hundreds of miles or more, 
to pay homage to the mountain god. 



158 Mission Fields. 



THE ISLAND WORLD. 

There are said to be only three .Protestant 
churches on the island of Cuba, and the population 
is estimated at nearly 2,000,000. 

There are about 2,000,000 people in Madagas- 
car who are Christians, or nominally so; but there 
are also 3,000,000 living in darkness and cruelty, 
having no conception of a god beyond a fetich. 

Not only Java, but the whole of Dutch India — 
including Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Celebes — has 
a strong claim, not only on Europe, but on Chris- 
tian America, for the gospel. Twenty-seven mill- 
ions of people, and only sixty-nine Christian mis- 
sionaries to tell them of the Way and the Truth 
and the Life! 

•Hr f * 

Upon the Hawaiian Islands, among the foreign- 
ers, are found 12,000 Portuguese, 13,600 Japanese, 
and 20,000 Chinese. Though Christianized them- 
selves, the Hawaiians find a large amount of mis- 
sionary work to do among these different peoples. 



Thk Isi,an< World. 159 

In Ceylon the Protestant Christians of all sects 
are together estimated at about 35,000, out of a 
population considerably in excess of 2,760,000. In 
a district about the size of AVales there are 180,000 
Singhalese, besides many Tamils; and in this dis- 
trict there are about a dozen schools, and these are 
for boys only, there not being even one for girls in 
that district. 

A missionary from Ceylon told, a short time 
since, of a dying Singhalese woman. He had bap- 
tized her as a recent convert from Buddhism, along 
with his own daughter, only twelve months or so 
before. Her last words were: "How beautiful 
God is!" Charles Kingsley's daughter heard her 
father use these very words during one of the last 
nights of his life. We see how there was that in 
God which delighted and astonished the highly cul- 
tured, gifted Englishman, and his simple, unlettered 
Singhalese sister. God's goodness and character 
satisfy all alike. 

The earth's islands have never been numbered, 
nor has any accurate census of the inhabitants ever 
been taken ; but they doubtless hold from thirty to 
forty millions. The islands of the Pacific have 
stood for the lowest type of barbarism and shocking 
savagery, for the unspeakable horrors of cannibal- 
ism and endless war. Fiji, New Zealand, New 
Hebrides, and Karatonga have long been names 



160 Mission Fields. 

with which to conjure up scenes most loathsome. 
Infanticide and cannibalism flourished in even darker 
forms than in other savage lands. Two-thirds of 
all the infants were killed at birth, and every vil- 
lage had an executioner appointed to carry out this 
deed of blood. Dead bodies were handed over to 
young children to hack and hew. No marvel if we 
read that sick and aged parents were put out of 
the way by the clubs of their own offspring. The 
sick were buried alive; widows were deliberately 
strangled on the death of any great man; living 
victims were buried beside every post of a chief's 
new house, and had to stand clasping it while the 
earth was gradually heaped over their heads; and 
canoes were launched by making rollers of living 
human bodies. Human language has no terms to 
express the former debasement of that people. 

The Gospel in all Lands gives the following ac- 
count of the state of the inhabitants of the islands 
of Melanesia and Polynesia, who are yet unreached : 
"Crimes of all degrees and of every kind are of 
constant occurrence. Treachery and inhumanity 
are among the traits of character. - Theft is not at 
all disreputable, and parents will teach their chil- 
dren to steal. Cruelty and bloodshed excite no 
more horror than events of the most common occur- 
rence. There are few places where the female sex 
are more degraded." 

"If we did not beat our women," said the men 
of some islands, "they would never work — they 



Thk Island World. 161 

would not fear and obey us ; but when we have beaten 
and killed and feasted on two or three, the rest are 
all very quiet and good for a long time." 

Amongst the heathen in the New Hebrides, 
woman is the downtrodden slave of man. She is 
kept working hard, and bears all the heavier bur- 
dens; while her husband walks by her side, with 
musket, club, or spear, ready to strike her if she 
does anything to offend him. 

I knew* of one chief, says a missionary, who had 
many wives, who were always jealous of each other 
and violently quarreling amongst themselves. When 
he was off at war, along with his men, the favorite 
w T ife — a tall and powerful woman — armed herself 
with an ax, and murdered all the others. On his 
return he made peace with her, and, either in terror 
or for other motives, promised to forego all attempts 
at revenge. One has to live amongst the Papuans, 
or the Malays, in order to understand how much 
woman is indebted to Christ. 

Fourteen islands in the New Hebrides group are 
still without missionaries. " One of the finest sights 
that I have ever seen, I saw recently at Tongoa," 
writes Mr. Annaud; adding, "On a grassy hillside 
were assembled fully six hundred natives, nearly all 
clothed gayly, and joining most heartily in singing 
sacred songs and reverently bowing their heads in 
prayer. Fifteen years ago I happened to be one of 
three missionaries who were on Tongoa, seeking to 
open that island for teachers or a missionary. On 

11 



162 Mission Fields. 

the Sabbath we spoke briefly to the people on that 
same hillside; but what a different congregation! 
Then we addressed a company of naked, painted 
cannibals, that were almost constantly at war, kill- 
ing and devouring one another. Now, what a 
changed scene! Up in the western parts of the 
islands we missionaries are still laboring, amidst the 
gloom of heathen barbarism. In Malekula, Malo, 
and Santo we are still unable to point to our con- 
verts; yet the attendance at our Sabbath service is 
fairly good. So the truth must eventually make its 
way through the thick darkness that surrounds and 
fills their souls." 

•a •?• -fr 

Australia, nearly as large as the United States, 
has a population of about 2,250,000, one-half of 
whom are Christians. Tasmania is a beautiful 
country, but has a dreadful people. England makes 
use of it as a penal colony, and missionary work is 
largely among these convicts and their children. 

* + -fr 

The results of mission-work in the island world 
have never been surpassed anywhere. The Ha- 
waiian Islands, everywhere recognized now as a 
Christian nation, seventy years ago were sunk to 
almost as low a pitch of degradation as the Fiji 
Islands. Their Churches are nearly self-sustaining 



The Island World. 163 

now, and are engaged in sending missionaries from 
their own numbers to other islands. 

The Society Islands tell the same tale. The 
Samoan Islands repeat the history and renew the 
wonder. Some 34,000 cannibals have professed 
Christianity. Two hundred native pastors minister, 
to Churches whose members are noted for liberal 
giviug. In the Sandwich Islands there are places 
of almost holy associations. The missionary Coan 
baptized, in one day, 1,7.05 converts; and others 
have had similar encouragements. In New Zealand 
missionaries toiled eleven years for their first con- 
vert, but soon after could tell of an entire nation 
being converted; and now we read that ninety -five 
per cent of the whole population of New Zealand 
professes religion. About 1,000 islands, embraced 
in the Gilbert, Marshall, Caroline, and Ladrone 
groups, constitute Micronesia; and when the first 
missionary w r ent to the Carolines, forty years ago, 
there was not a book in that island- world. The people 
who read and are members of Churches can now be 
numbered by hundreds. 

What dismal tragedy was enacted for a genera- 
tion in Madagascar, after thousands had chosen the 
Way of -Life! To-day, Madagascar shines in the 
Light, revealing the power and reality of the Chris- 
tian transformation. 

Think of 70,000 Fijis converted, and having a 
thousand churches on their islands! In " At Home 
in Fiji," Miss Cummings says: " You may now pass 



164 Mission Fikuds. 

from isle to isle, certain everywhere to find the same 
cordial reception by kindly men and women. Every 
village on the eighty inhabited isles has built for 
itself a church and a good house for its native 
minister." 

Can you realize that there are 900 Wesleyan 
churches in Fiji, at every one of which the frequent 
services are crowded by devout congregations, and 
that schools flourish? 

On the New Hebrides groups more than 12,000 
of the natives have professed conversion, and by 
their godly lives and their self-sacrificing gifts have 
showed themselves to be true disciples of the 
Master. 

Writing of the death of his first Aniwan con- 
vert, Mr. Paton says: "My heart felt like to break 
over him. There we stood, the white missionaries 
of the Cross from far distant lands, mingling our 
tears with Christian natives of Aneityum, and let- 
ting them fall over one who, only a few years be- 
fore, was a blood-stained cannibal, and whom now 
w r e mourned as a brother, a saint, an apostle, 
amongst his people. Ye ask an explanation? The 
Christ entered into his heart, and Namakei became 
a new creature. ' Behold, I make all things new!' ,! 

An affecting story is told of a beggar of the 
South Sea Islands, known as Buteve. There are 
stone seats occasionally along the roads which are 



Thk Island Woku>. 165 

formed by two smooth stones, one of which serves 
as a seat and the other as a support for the back; 
and here, in the cool of the day, would be found 
certain persons ready to chat with any passer-by. 
The missionary's attention was arrested by seeing a 
person get off one of these seats, and walk upon 
his knees into the center of the "parent path," 
shouting: "Welcome, servant of God, who brought 
light into this dark island ! To you we are indebted 
for the Word of Heaven." The missionary asked 
the cripple what he knew about heaven, and found 
his answers to be exceedingly intelligent about Jesus 
Christ and his atonement, the future life, and the 
approach of the soul to God in prayer. "Buteve, 
where did you obtain all this knowledge? I do not 
remember ever to have seen you at the settlements 
where I have spoken," said the missionary; "and, 
besides this, your hands and feet are eaten off by 
disease, and you have to walk upon your knees." 
Buteve answered: "As the people return from the 
service, I sit by the wayside, and beg from them, as 
they pass by, a bit of the Word. One gives me one 
piece, and another another, and I gather them to- 
gether in my heart; and thinking over what I thus 
obtain, and praying to God to make me know, I 
get to understand." This poor cripple, who had 
never been in a place of worship himself, had thus 
picked up the crumbs which fell from the Lord's 
table, and eagerly devoured them. 



166 Mission Fields. 



RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What is a necessary feature of mission- 
ary work in the island- world ? 

Answer. The use of missionary ships. 

Q. Are there many of them? 

A. Quite a fleet. They make yearly trips among 
the islands — taking supplies and carrying mission- 
aries from island to island — and carry native workers 
to new fields. 

Q. How do the results of missionary work com- 
pare with those elsewhere? 

A. They are greater for the same labor bestowed ; 
for the reason that the people are more susceptible 
to the truth, not having been chained down by false 
creeds. 

Q. What is the best missionary intelligence to 
stir enthusiasm? 

A. The story of a true missionary's life and 
labors among the heathen. Such a story is to be 
found in the life of John Paton, missionary to the 
New Hebrides. Livingstone's self-denial for the 
African made England think of Africa. The story 
of Tanna and Aniwa would never have thrilled all 
Christendom, had not Paton first lived it, and then 
told it in his simple narrative. No field ever pro- 
duced more martyrs to missions than the pioneer 
work among the islands of the seas, and in "Mod- 
ern Heroes of the Mission Fields" we may read of 



The Island World. 167 

several. Rev. John Williams, when he first went 
to Raratonga, found the people all heathen, and 
when he left them they were all professed Chris- 
tians. A dark and bloody idolatry, with all its hor- 
rid rites, gave way to the triumphs of the gospel, 
and island after island successively embraced Chris- 
tianity, until not one group or island of importance 
could be found within two thousand miles of Tahiti, 
in any direction, to which he had not carried the 
gospel. This hero w T as run into the sea, clubbed, 
and his life ended by a flight of arrows from some 
savages. The Bishop of Ripon laid down the story 
of Williams's missionary career, exclaiming: "I 
have now been reading the twenty-ninth chapter of 
the Acts of the Apostles !" 

To the missionary John Hunt belongs the honor 
of giving the New Testament to Fiji in its native 
tongue. He made known everywhere the story of 
peace, traveling eleven hundred miles in a single 
twelve-month, organizing schools, and training 
promising converts — of whom he had hundreds — as 
native teachers. This man of strong character and 
fearless will, when asked in England to go as a 
missionary to the Fijians, was startled by the ques- 
tion, and begged time to consider it. He burst into 
the room of a fellow-student at college, and in quick, 
excited tones told him of the unexpected proposal. 
His friend, thinking only of the hardships and 
perils, began to sympathize with him. But he had 
not read the secret of Hunt's deep emotion. " O, 



168 Mission Fields. 

#- 

that's not it!" exclaimed the impassioned youth. 
"I'll tell you what it is: that poor girl in Lincoln- 
shire will never go with me to Fiji — her mother will 
never consent to it." The truth was, that that 
strong, noble heart of his had been linked in love, 
for the last six years, with the heart of a beautiful 
girl; and he, whom neither cannibalism nor pagan- 
ism could affright, felt dismayed at the possibility 
of being parted from her forever. He sat down 
instantly and wrote to her. His heart was dis- 
tressed, and he moved in and out amongst his fellow- 
students with an anxious air. But as quickly as 
posts could travel, came back the reply of that 
noble girl ; and Hunt burst once more into his 
friend's chamber, and, with beaming face and cheery 
voice, exclaimed: "It's all right! She'll go with 
me anywhere !" 

Bishop Patteson, of Melanesia, met death by the 
hand of a native traitor. His body — there it lay ; 
and his face wore its own sweet smile of love. 
There were five wounds — no more; and the frond 
of a cocoanut-palm was fastened on the lifeless 
breast. It was all unconsciously that his murderers 
had adopted for him the emblem of Christian vic- 
tory. "To have known such a man," writes Max 
Miiller, "is one of life's greatest blessings. In his 
life of purity, unselfishness, devotion to man, and 
faith in a higher world, those who have eyes to 
see may read the best, the most real 'Imitatio 
Christi.'" 



North American Indians. 169 



NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS. 

" While we send our missionaries to Africa, 
Asia, and the islands of the Pacific, let us not forget 
the poor heathen Indian of our own land." 

3* ••• & 

"I knew that my people were perishing," said 
an American Indian chief, who had walked three 
hundred and fifty miles to find a missionary. "I 
never looked in the face of my child that my heart 
was not sick. My fathers told me there was a Great 
Spirit; and I have often gone to the woods and 
tried to ask him for help, and I only get the sound 
of my own voice. You do not know what I mean; 
for you never stood in the dark, and reached out 
your hand, and took hold of nothing." 

& •;• ft 

The total Indian population of the United States 
is 247,761. The number of Indian Church mem- 
bers in the United States is 28,663. There are 
only 81 missionaries to 184,000 Indians. Sixty- 
eight tribes have neither church nor missionary. 
Seventeen thousand Navajos are yet untouched by 
Christians. Five thousand Apaches, in Arizona, 
are absolutely destitute of all Christian influence. 
There are seventeen thousand in Wyoming Territory 
still heathen. 



170 Mission Fiki^ds. 

The 250,000 Indians of the United States are 
divided into a hundred different tribes, having as 
many languages, and settled on seventy or eighty 
reservations. The most prominent nations — the 
Cherokees, Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Semi- 
noles — number about 70,000, and are known as 
"the civilized tribes," they having made great ad- 
vances in civilization during the seventy years of 
mission-work among them. They wear ordinary 
dress, live in houses, and are engaged in farming 
and stock-raising; and support schools of their own. 
Perhaps from one-fifth to one-half of the whole 
number of Indians in the United States may be 
called civilized. 

* + te 

Bishop Whipple related, at the American Mis- 
sionary Association, the following narrative: "I can 
tell you the story of Indian missions by relating one 
incident. Some years ago Bishop Charles Hervey 
went with me to the Indian country. We had de- 
lightful services. After the holy communion we 
were sitting on the green sward near a house. The 
head chief said: 'Your friend came across the great 
water; does he know the Iudian's history?' I said, 
'No.' He said: 'I will tell him. Before the white 
man came, the forests and prairies were full of 
game; the rivers and lakes were full of fish; the 
wild-rice was Manitou's gift to the red man. Would 
you like to see one of these Indians?' There stepped 



North American Indians. 171 

out on the porch an Indian man and woman, dressed 
in furs, ornamented with porcupine-quills. * There/ 
said the chief, 'my people were like those before 
the white man came. Shall I tell you what the 
white man did for us? He came and told us we 
had no fire-horses, no fire-canoes. He said that 
if we would sell him our land he would make 
us like white men. Shall I tell you what he did? 
No, you had better see it? The door opened, and 
out stepped a poor, degraded-looking Indian — his 
face besmeared with mud, his blanket in rags, no 
leggings, and by his side a poor, wretched-looking 
woman, in a torn calico dress. The chief raised his 
head, and said: 'Manido, Manido, is this an In- 
dian V The man bowed his head. 'How came 
this?' The Indian held up a black bottle, and said: 
'This is the white man's gift.' Some of us bowed 
our heads in shame. Said the chief: 'If this were 
all, I would not have told you. Long years ago, a 
pale-faced man came to our country. He spoke 
kindly, and seemed to want to help us; but our 
hearts were hard. We hated the white man, and 
would not listen. Every summer, when the sun was 
so high, he came. We always looked to see his tall 
form coming through the forest. One year I said 
to my fellows: "What does this man come for? He 
does not trade w T ith us; he never asks any tiling of 
us. Perhaps the Great Spirit sent him." We 
stopped to listen. Some of us have that story in 
our hearts. Shall I tell you what it has done for 



172 Mission Fields. 

us?' The door opened, and out stepped a young 
man — a clergyman — in a black frock coat, and by 
his side a woman neatly dressed in a black alpaca 
dress. Said the chief: * There is only one religion 
in the world which can lift a man out of the mire 
and tell him to call God Father, and that is the re- 
ligion of Jesus Christ.'" —Spirit of Missions. 

Far-off Alaska, with a territory one-sixth as 
large as the United States, stretches out her hands 
to us for help. Her daughters 1 — despised by their 
fathers, sold by their mothers, ill-treated by their 
husbands, cast out in their maidenhood, living lives 
of toil, untaught and uncared-for, crushed by a 
cruel heathenism, with no hope for this world and 
no hope for the world to come — have nowhere else 
to turn for sympathy and help than to their Chris- 
tian sisters. "I would give the whole world," cried 
an Alaskan woman — hiding her face in her blanket — 
when she heard of heaven, " if I could only have 
such a hope on my dying bed." Unwelcomed at 
her birth; unclean and uncared-for during the first 
year of her life; rolled up in a padding of grass 
and skin, and exposed to the inclemency of the 
weather, — the little Alaskan girl has a hard strug- 
gle for life. Female infanticide is prevalent. If 
the parents think the children are too numerous, 
the mother murders her babe, or else steals away 
into the woods at dusk, and leaves it there to the 



North American Indians. 173 

mercy of wild animals. It is cruel treatment; but 
it is more kind than permitting the child to live 
and be despised and brutalized, and to lead a life of 
degradation and misery, such as her mother lives. 
"Slavery, vice, misery, abuse, and often violent 
death and horrible denial of burial — these are an 
Alaskan woman's portion," says Mrs. Julia MciSTair 
Wright, in her book "Among the Alaskans." "She 
expects nothing else; hope is dead. For her child 
there is nothing better." 

The wife, persevering and industrious, goes fish- 
ing and to the hunt with her husband, not as his 
companion, but as the drudge. For the man there 
is a bright hereafter, but the woman has no hope. 
The heart sickens at the tortures of the women who 
are accused of being watches. 

In erecting their houses, the four corner-posts 
are planted on the bodies of four women, slaugh- 
tered for that purpose. Dr. Sheldon Jackson says: 
"If the houses had a voice, to rehearse the scenes 
that had passed before them, the whole world would 
stand aghast and be horrified at the cruelties which 
it was possible for human nature to gloat over. 
When those great corner-posts w 7 ere placed into po- 
sition, a slave was murdered and placed under each. 
When the houses were completed and occupied, 
scores of slaves were butchered, to show the power 
and wealth of the master, whose slaves were so 
plentiful that he could afford to kill some and still 
have plenty left. Founded and dedicated with 



174 Mission Fields. 

human sacrifices, who can conceive of the aggregate 
of human woe and suffering in those habitations of 
cruelty, year after year, at their wild drunken 
orgies, their cannibal feasts, their torture of witches, 
their fiendish carousals around the burning dead, 
the long despairing wails of lost souls as they pass 
out into eternal darkness !" 

■a ••• -k< 

The hardships of the women among the Cree 
Indians in British America are not much less than 
those of their Alaskan sisters. A missionary says: 
"When I have visited the wild men, I have seen 
the proud hunter come stalking into the camp, and, 
in imperative tones, shout out to his poor wife, 'Go 
back on my tracks in the woods, and bring in the 
deer I have shot; and hurry, for I want my food!' 
Seizing a long carrying-strap, she rapidly glides 
away on the trail made by her husband's snow-shoes, 
perhaps for three miles. Fastening one end of the 
strap to the haunches of the deer and the other 
around her neck, she succeeds in getting the animal, 
which may weigh from a hundred to two hundred 
pounds, upon her back. Panting with fatigue, she 
comes in with her heavy burden. The poor woman, 
although almost exhausted, quickly seizes the scalp- 
ing-knife, and deftly skins the animal, and fills a 
pot with the savory venison. While the men are 
rapidly devouring their meal, the poor woman has 



North American Indians. 175 

her first moments of rest; but gets nothing to eat 
until the men have finished their meal." 

When the poor women get old and feeble, very 
sad and deplorable is their condition. When aged 
and weak, they are shamefully neglected, and often 
put out of existence ! 

In delightful contrast to these sad sights among 
the degraded savages are the kindly ways and 
happy homes of the converted Indians, where woman 
occupies her true position, and is well and lovingly 
treated. 

& ••• & 

In his book, "By Canoe and Dog Train," Rev. 
E. R. Young is a most fascinating narrator of his 
missionary life among the Cree and Salteaux In- 
dians. "At times," he says, "we were surprised 
by seeing companies of pagan Indians stalk into the 
church during the services, not always acting in a 
w r ay becoming to the house or day. I was very 
much astonished, one day, by the entrance of an 
old Indian, called Tapastonum, who, rattling his or- 
naments and crying 'Ho! ho!' came into the church 
in a sort of trot, and gravely kissed several of the 
men and women. As my Christian Indians seemed 
to stand the interruption, I felt that I could. Soon 
he sat down, at the invitation of Big Tom, and 
listened to me. He was grotesquely dressed, and 
had a good-sized looking-glass hanging on his breast, 
kept in its place by a string hung around his neck. 



176 Mission Fields. 

To aid himself in listening, he lit his big pipe, and 
smoked through the rest of the service. When I 
spoke to the people afterwards about the conduct 
of this man — so opposite to their quiet, respectful 
demeanor in the house of God — their expressive, 
charitable answer was: 'Such were we once, as igno- 
rant as Tapastonum is now. Let us have patience 
with him, and perhaps he, too, will soon decide to 
give his heart to God. Let him come; he will get 
quiet when he gets the light." 

Mr. Young tells of heroic hearts among the 
converted men and women of the Cree Indians. 
At one time, on account of pestilence, many isolated 
missionaries and traders, and other whites who had 
gone into remoter parts, were suffering dire priva- 
tions. Ringing his church-bell, and assembling his 
people, Mr, Young said to them: "I know your 
race on this continent has not always been fairly 
treated; but never mind that. Here is the oppor- 
tunity for you to do a glorious act, and to show 
that you can make sacrifices and run risks w T hen 
duty calls." After further hearing the sad circum- 
stances, the Indians agreed to go; and three days 
after, twenty boats, well loaded with supplies, each 
manned by eight men, started. They were gone 
ten weeks, and very long seemed the summer. All 
returned well but the leader, Samuel Papanekis, 
and on him the strain was too great. 



North American Indians. 177 

Pathetically, Mr. Young recounts a visit made 
the nsxt winter to this man's widow, to whom he 
said: " Nancy, you seem to be very poor; you do n't 
seem to have anything to make you happy and 
comfortable." "Very quickly came a response," 
Mr. Young says, "and it was in a very much more 
cheery strain than my words had been : ' I have not 
much; but I am not unhappy, Missionary.' She 
had no venison, no flour, no tea; I asked if she 
had potatoes. When this last question of mine was 
uttered, the poor woman looked up at me, and this 
w 7 as her answer : ' I have no potatoes ; for do n't 
you remember, at the time of potato-planting, Sam- 
uel took charge of the brigade that went up with 
provisions to save the poor white people?' With 
my heart full, I said: 'What, then, have you, poor 
woman?' She replied: 'A couple of fish-nets.?' 
'And what do you do when it is too stormy to visit 
the nets?' 'We go without.' To hide my emotion 
and keep back the tears, I hurried out of the house 
to get her some supplies. I had gone but a few 
steps when the word ' Ayumeaookemon ' (Praying- 
master), arrested my hurrying steps. It was Nancy, 
who had read her missionary's heart, and said: 
* Missionary, I do not want you to feel so badly for 
me. It is true I am very poor; it is true, since 
Samuel died, we have often been hungry, and have 
often suffered from the bitter cold, — but, Missionary, 
you have heard me say that as Samuel gave his 
heart to God, so have I given God my heart; and 

12 



178 Mission Fields.' 

he who comforted Samuel and helped him, so thai 
he died so happily, is my Savior ; and where Samuel 
has gone, by and by I am going too; and that 
thought makes me happy all day long.'" * 

RESPONSIVE EXERCISES. 

Question. What is the total Indian population of 
British America and the United States? 

Answer. In British America there are 100,000 
Indians; and about 280,000 in the United States, 
including Alaska. 

Q. What is their religion? 

A. They are believers in some kind of a Great 
Spirit, and in an* inferior evil being who is hostile 
to man. They believe in a future life; in the trans- 
migration of souls; and also in demons, magic, and 
witchcraft. 

Q. What one good trait seems universal among 
them? 

A. They are liberal, giving many times to those 
who are poorer than themselves, until it seems as 
though they had about reached the same level. 

Q. What does one writer say of the poetic ele- 
ment, which has preserved an interest in the Indian 
among lettered peoples? 

A. " There is no other uncultured race which 
could have furnished the basal structure of so beau- 
tiful a poem as 'Hiawatha.'" 



North Amkrican Indians. 179 

Q. How have the Indians been treated by white 
people? 

A. They have been robbed of their lands, and 
pushed gradually from the Atlantic Coast almost to 
the Pacific; they have been cheated, massacred, left 
to die of starvation, and have been the victims of 
dishonest and cruel traders and agents who were set 
over them, until they have come almost to consider 
the white people their enemies. 

Q. What does Bishop Hare say of Christianity 
among the Sioux Indians? 

A. " There are over nine Sioux Indians nobly 
working in the sacred ministry. They have about 
forty Sioux Indians as their helpers. There are 
forty branches of women's auxiliary societies among 
the Sioux Indian women. There are seventeen 
hundred Sioux Indian communicants. Sioux In- 
dians are contributing nearly S3, 000 annually for 
religious purposes! But what impression have these 
cheering facts made upon the public mind as com- 
pared with the wild antics of the heathen Sioux In- 
dians, which excited the attention of the country, and 
daily occupied column after column of the news- 
papers for weeks?" 

Q. What is the hope for the continued improve- 
ment of the Indian? 

A. The Christian Churches are the hope of the 
"red" race. The marked improvement and wonder- 
ful progress of the Christian Indians over the others 
are something very marvelous. 



180 Mission Fields. 

Q. Can the Indians yet do without our aid? 

A. By no means. Besides the 100,000 who 
may be called civilized, there are 98,000 that are 
wild, only coming to the Government agent for ra- 
tions and blankets; and about 14,000 more are 
called roamers or vagrants, as they have no settled 
home. There are 40,000 wild Indian children in 
our country, of whom but 12,000 are gathered in 
the Government and mission schools; leaving 28,- 
000 children to whom no school opens its doors, and 
to whom no missionary goes. 



GIFTS. 



The Protestant Churches in the United States 
spend annually for home work, $80,000,000; for 
foreign work, $4,000,000— one-twentieth. While 
the need is from 300 to 680 times greater in the for- 
eign field, twenty times as much is spent in the 
home field. 

& .;. & 

The sum of $80,000,000 is expended for the 
evangelization of 60,000,000 people — $1.33 each; 
$4,000,000 is expended for the evangelization of 
1,181,000,000 people — one-third of a cent each. 

St ••• & 

Nine-tenths of the contributions to foreign 
missions are given by one-tenth of the Church mem- 
bership, while only one-half of the membership give 
anything. The average amount of each member is 
fifty cents per annum — only the seventh part of a 
cent a day for the conversion of a thousand mill- 
ions of heathen. An average of five cents a week 
from every member of the Protestant Churches of 
the United States would bring into the treasury, 
during a single year, $16,500,000. Ninety-eight 

181 



182 Gifts. 

per cent of the Church's contributions for religious 
purposes' is spent at home, while only two per cent 
is sent to the foreign mission-field. 

& ••• & 

A recent sermon of Canon Farrar applies to 
America as well as to England. "What shall I 
say of the rich?" he asks. "I say there are scores 
of men in London who could save our hospitals 
and Christian enterprises from anxiety almost with- 
out feeling it. Look at the recent art sales ! Ten 
thousand dollars for one dessert-service; $6,000 for 
two flower-pots; $15,000 for a chimney ornament; 
$50,000 for two vases; $1,500 for a single dress; 
$5,000 for flowers for a ball! If there be such a 
Pactolus of wealth for these things, can there be by 
comparison only a drop or two to heal the bodies 
and ameliorate the souls of men?" Fifteen million 
dollars' worth of cut diamonds per annum are re- 
quired by the United States. One who is face to 
face with heathenism, and often passes through vil- 
lages of from 100 to 500 inhabitants, where a little 
prayer-house, although much needed, can not be 
built for w r ant of only $10 or $15, must feel deeply 
the needless expenditures in Christian countries. 

Dion Botjcicault said: "More than $200,- 
000,000 are paid every year by the American peo- 
ple for their theatrical entertainments." All the 



Gifts. 183 

Churches in the world are spending less money for 
foreign missions annually than the theaters of the 
single city of New York receive every year from 
their patrons. 

►» r & 

Mrs. Joseph Cook has said: "A true zeal for 
missions will lead any one to do something, or do 
without something, for Jesus' sake. It seems to me 
that the only money worthy to be given to missions 
is that which has been sacredly laid aside for that 
purpose, and laid aside at some cost." 

■a- ••• •* 

SUCH GIFTS AND GIVERS AS GOD LOVES. 

j In the beautiful island of Ceylon, many years 
ago, the native Christians, who had long worshiped 
in bungalows and old Dutch chapels, decided that 
they must have a church built for themselves. En- 
thusiastic givers were each eager to forward the 
new enterprise. But to the amazement of all, 
Maria Peabody — a lone orphan girl, who had been 
a beneficiary in the girls' school .at Oodooville — 
came forward, and offered to give the land upon 
which to build, which was the best site in her native 
village. 

Not only w T as it all she owned in this world, but 
far more — it was her marriage portion; and in 
making this gift, in the eyes of every native, she 
renounced all hopes of being married. As this al- 



184 Gifts. 

tentative in the East was regarded as an awful step, 
many thought her beside herself, and tried to dis- 
suade her from such an act of renunciation. " No," 
said Maria, "I have given it to Jesus; and as he 
has accepted it, you must." And so to-day the first 
Christian church in Ceylon stands upon land given 
by a poor orphan girl. 

The deed was noised abroad, and came to the 
knowledge of a young theological student, who was 
also a beneficiary of the mission, and it touched his 
heart. Neither could he rest until he had sought 
and won the rare and noble maiden who was willing 
to give up so much in her Master's cause. 

Some one in the United States had been for 
years contributing twenty dollars annually for the 
support of this young Hindu girl, but the donor 
was unknown. The Rev. Dr. Poor, a missionary in 
Ceylon, visiting America about that time, longed to 
ascertain who was the faithful sower, and report the 
wonderful harvest. 

Finding himself in Hanover, New Hampshire, 
preaching to the students of Dartmouth College* he 
happened in conversation to hear some one speak of 
Mrs. Peabody, and repeated: "Peabody! What 
Peabody?" " Mrs. Maria Peabody, who resides 
here, the widow of a former professor," was the 
answer. "O, I must see her before I leave!" said 
the earnest man, about to continue his journey. 

The first words after an introduction, at her 
house, were: "I have come to bring you a glad 



Gifts. 185 

report; for I can not but think that it is to you 
we, in Ceylon, owe the opportunity of educating 
one who has proved as lovely and consistent a 
native convert as we have ever had. She is ex- 
ceptionally interesting, devotedly pious, and bears 
your narae." 

' ' Alas!" said the lady, " although the girl bears 
my name, I wish I could claim the honor of edu- 
cating her; it belongs not to me, but to Louisa Os- 
borne, my poor colored cook. Some years ago, in 
Salem, Massachusetts, she came to me, after an 
evening meeting, saying: *I have just heard that if 
anybody would give twenty dollars a year they 
could support and educate a child in Ceylon, and I 
have decided to do it. They say that along with 
the money I can send a name, and I have come, 
Mistress, to ask you if you would object to my send- 
ing yours?' At that time," continued the lady, "a 
servant's wages ranged from a dollar to a dollar and 
a half a week, yet my cook had for a long time 
been contributing half a dollar each month at the 
monthly concert for foreign missions. There were 
those who expostulated with her for giving away so 
much, for one in her circumstances, as a time might 
come when she could not earn. ' I have thought it 
all over,' she would reply, 'and concluded I would 
rather give what I can while I am earning; and 
then if I lose my health and can not work, 
why there is the poor-house, and I can go there. 
You see, they have no poor-house in heathen 



186 Gifts. 

lands, for it is only Christians who care for the 
poor.'" 

In telling this story, Dr. Poor used to pause 
here, and exclaim: "To the poor-house! Do you 
believe God would ever let that good woman die in 
the poor-house? Never! We shall see." 

The missionary learned that the last known of 
Louisa Osborne was, that she was residing in Lowell, 
Massachusetts. In due time his duties called him 
to that city. At the close of an evening service, 
before a crowded house, he related among mission- 
ary incidents, as a crowning triumph, the story of 
Louisa Osborne and Maria Peabody. The disinter- 
ested devotion, self-sacrifice, and implicit faith and 
zeal of the Christian giver in favored America has 
been developed, matured, and well-nigh eclipsed by 
her faithful protegee in far-off, benighted India. His 
heart glowing with zeal, and deeply stirred by the 
fresh retrospect of the triumphs of the gospel over 
heathenism, he exclaimed: "If there is any one 
present who knows anything of that good woman, 
Louisa Osborne, and will lead me to her, I will be 
greatly obliged." The benediction pronounced and 
the crowd dispersing, Dr. Poor passed down one of 
the aisles, chatting with the pastor, when he espied 
a quiet little figure apparently waiting for him. 
Could it be? Yes, it was a colored woman, and it 
must be Louisa Osborne. With quickened steps he 
reached her, exclaiming, in tones of suppressed emo- 
tion: "I believe that this is my sister in Christ, 



Gifts. 187 

Louisa Osborne?" "That is my name," was the 
calm reply. "Well, God bless you, Louisa! You 
have heard my report, and know all; but before we 
part, probably never to meet again in this world, I 
want you to answer me one question. What made 
you do it?" With downcast eyes, and in a low and 
trembling voice, she replied: "Well, I do not know, 
but I guess it w T as my Lord Jesus!" 

They parted, only to meet in the streets of the 
New Jerusalem. 

The humble handmaiden of the Lord labored 
meekly on awhile, and is ending her failing days, 
not in a poor-house, verily, but, through the efforts 
of those who knew her best, in a pleasant, comfort- 
able old ladies' home. "Him that honoreth me, I 
wiil honor." — Intelligencer. 

The teacher of an African school, wanting her 
girls to learn to give, paid them for any work they 
w r ould do for her, so that each one might have some- 
thing of her own to give towards any little benevo- 
lence. Among the pupils was a new scholar. 
"Such a wild and ignorant little heathen," she says, 
"that I did not try to explain to her what the other 
girls were doing. The day came for the gifts to be 
handed in. Each girl brought her piece of money, 
and laid it down. I thought all the offerings were 
given; but there stood the new scholar, hugging 
tightly in her arms a pitcher — the only thing that 



188 Gifts. 

she had in the world. She went to the table, put 
it among the other gifts, kissed it, and turned away. 
That story reminds me of another, about One who 
watched and still watches people casting gifts into 
his treasury; and I wondered if he might not say 
of the little African, too, ' She hath cast in more 
than they all."' 

* .;• fa 

JIM AND THE MISSIONARY MEETING. 

The sun had already set when Harrow, the cow- 
boy, rode into the main street of the little village 
of Blue Stem, tied his pony to the windmill der- 
rick at the town-pump, and hurried over to the 
store, just opposite, to buy some bacon and other 
articles of food, such as the rough life of the cow- 
boys demanded. He was cook for the gang; and 
after spending some time in laying in as much as 
he thought he could get trusted for, he walked slowly 
out of the store, and turned up the street in the 
direction opposite to that taken an hour or more 
before by his fellows in work and revelry. 

Jim did not want the compauy of the other 
herders to-night. The pain in his head, and his 
disgust as he thought of the last night's carousal — 
which had ended with a demand from the saloon- 
keeper for money due him as he thrust Jim into the 
street — did not bring any wish for the fellowship 
which would probably repeat his experience for 



• Gifts. 189 

him. He was sober now, and he wanted to keep 
sober, for a time at least. He strolled heavily and 
moodily along some distance over the dilapidated 
board-walks, thinking about his debts — when his 
aching head would let him think at all — and trying 
to study out some plan for relief, when the thought 
came to him to run off a few of the cattle to a dis- 
tant point, sell them, and then, when questioned by 
the owner, swear they had died of black-leg. This 
was risky, but he had seen it done once or twice 
successfully. Just then he stepped down suddenly 
from the sidewalk, and nearly pitched over on his 
face; and was thereby reminded that the sidewalk 
had ended, that his head was still aching, and that 
the burden of his debt was not yet lifted. 

"I mought have known, by the sidewalk stop- 
ping, there was a church here," said Jim to himself, 
as his eyes fell upon a plain "white building, that 
stood in the middle of an un fenced lot, before which 
he was standing. u She's lighted for business, too. 
An' now they are at it," as the strains of a hymn 
came through the open door. "I 'most b'lieve I'll 
go in. I'd rather be in there, if 'tis church, than 
with the boys, getting drunk and playing the fool 
again." 

Jim did not know that the Broad Valley Asso- 
ciation of Central Nebraska was in session at the 
Blue Stem Church, and that the good people of 
Blue Stem and the surrounding country had been 
gathering there three times a day for the past three 



190 Gifts. ." 

days. If he had known this fact, bold as he was, 
he might have been a little shy about entering such 
a condensed moral atmosphere alone. At this time, 
however, the church was a haven in which nonte 
other of his kind was liable to anchor. He walked 
up the steps, stood by the door until his eyes caught 
sight of a vacant seat near him, and then shuffled 
in as quickly as possible, and sat down. The only 
other occupant of the pew — a little girl — eyed him 
and his pistols a minute or two, and then moved a 
little further along toward the. other end of the 
seat. 

After the singing was over, the chairman gave 
out as a .topic for discussion, "The Pew as Seen 
from the Pulpit," adding that "after the leader had 
finished, all would be invited to take part." 

Jim thought he could tell them a thing or two 
about how the pulpit looked from the pew, the Sun- 
day morning he shot his pistol through the church- 
door at Slippery Hollow ; but he simply drew up his 
feet, stretched his legs out upon the seat,, and prepared 
for a good comfortable time of it. "I'm corraled now, 
an' I may as well take it easy," he thought. The speaker 
began with a few crisp sentences, and then launched 
into his subject, striking right and left at the sleepy 
heads, the noisy inquisitive ones, and the loungers, 
with such raciness that Jim was soon sitting bolt 
upright, and listening with all his might. "The 
boss preacher, and no mistake," was his mental 
comment; and, when the little man sat down, he 



Gifts. 191 

could not refrain from giving, by way of approval, 
several vigorous thumps upon the floor with his 
heels, much to the consternation of a few in the 
audience who knew him. 

A little further discussion of the subject followed, 
and then it was given out that the remainder of the 
evening would be given up to the "Women's Mis- 
sionary Society." A band of little girls, under the 
direction of a lady seated at the organ, filed upon 
the stage. Each represented a flower, and spoke a 
piece; then all distributed through the audience the 
flowers which they carried. The very smallest of 
them all gave one to Jim. This was a feature of 
Church entirely new to him, and something seemed 
to smite him as he took the flowers in his great 
clumsy fingers. Nobody here owed him any favors, 
and why should he be noticed as others were? His 
very roughness appeared to him, and made him 
sensitive ; and what to another would have been an 
insignificant happening, touched him where he 
thought there was no feeling. 

While he was thinking soberly of this incident, 
a lady stood up to read — an earnest-looking, clear- 
voiced woman it was — who began: "How much 
owest thou unto my Lord?" The room was very 
quiet as she read ; for it seemed as if some one were 
being arraigned, so direct and personal was the 
question. She asked in her pleasant way again: 
"How much owest thou unto my Lord? Have you 
never thought of it — the debt to my Lord, your 



192 Gifts. 

Lord, the Lord who bought us? Have you paid 
this debt of gratitude ?" 

Nothing was said about making money, no men- 
tion of what are usually called debts; but "how 
much do you owe for the things which money can 
not buy — the life you enjoy, the loving kindness 
and tender mercies with which you are crowned? 
Have you given but the cup of cold water in His 
name when you had the chance?" A little more, 
and she finished; but the effect of the few simple 
words was felt; and when the speaker sat down, 
one after another arose to speak. Each owed more 
than he could pay, and each felt his poverty. 

The same impulse which made them humble 
was lifting them upon a higher plane and into a 
purer atmosphere. It was hardly a surprise to them 
when the cowboy rose from his seat, and took ad- 
vantage of their invitation to speak ; for who could 
have been there and not felt the striving of the 
Holy One? They turned to look at him as he 
began. 

"I'm not straight like the rest of ye. I have n't 
been as white as I had orter been. I 'm a cowboy. 
I 've this to say, though : I want to pay my debts. 
The lady has told me o' One I did n't know about; 
and Jim Harrow 's not the boy to sit still when he $ s 
in debt." 

The meeting was soon over. They tried to get 
at him, and talk with him; but the cowboy was 
gone. The message had reached him, a,nd was in- 



Gifts.* 193 

terpreted. It was not for them, at that time, to 
hear the answer; but out upon the prairie, with 
none but his pony and his God, the cowboy knelt, 
for the first time in his life, and uttered his broken 
petition : 

"0 Lord, I'm owin' many, but I've gone ag'in' 
ye worst of all. I 've nothin' to pay ye with, but 
I've come to ye. She said ye was merciful. Amen." 

As the wind whispered to the grassy wilderness, 
so the "still, small voice" breathed upon the soul of 
the cowboy, and there was peace. The problem of 
debt and credit was settled. —The Obsekver. 

•» + * 

THE GIVING ALPHABET. 

All things come of thee, and of thine own have 
we given thee. (1 Chron. xxiv, 14.) 

Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that 
there may be meat in mine house, and prove me 
now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not 
open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out 
a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to 
receive it. (Mai. iii, 10.) 

Charge them that are rich in this world . . . 
that they do good, that they be rich in good works, 
ready to distribute, willing to communicate. (1 Tim. 
vi, 17, 18.) 

Do good unto all men, especially unto them who 
are of the household of faith. (Gal. vi, 10). 

13 



194 Gifts. 

Every man according as he purposeth in his 
heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of neces- 
sity. (2 Cor. ix, 7.) 

Freely ye have received, freely give. (Matt. 
x,8.) 

God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. ix, 7.) 

Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with 
the first fruits of thine increase. (Pro v. iii, 9.) 

If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 
according to that a man hath, and not according to 
that he hath not. (2 Cor. viii, 12.) 

Jesus said, It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive. (Acts xx, 35.) 

Knowing that whatsoever good P thing any man 
doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether 
he be bond or free. (Eph. vi, 8.) 

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, 
where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where 
thieves break through and steal; but lay up for 
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth 
nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not 
break through nor steal. (Matt, vi, 19, 20.) 

My little children, let us not love in word, neither 
in tongue, but in deed and in truth. (1 John 
iii, 18.) 

Now concerning the collection for the saints . . . 
upon the first day of the week let every one of you 
lay by in store as God hath prospered him. (1 Cor. 
xvi, 1, 2.) 



Gifts. 195 

Of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely 
give the tenth to thee. (Gen. xxviii, 22.) 

Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a 
treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no 
thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. (Luke 
xii, 33.) 

Quench not the Spirit. (1 Thess. v, 19.) 

Render unto God the things that are God's. 
(Matt, xxii, 21.) 

See that ye abound in this grace also. (2 Cor. 
viii, 2.) 

The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith 
the Lord of hosts. (Haggai ii, 8.) 

Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall 
be much required. (Luke xii, 48.) 

Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God. (Psa. 
lxxvi, 11.) 

Whoso hath this world's goods, and* seeth his 
brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of 
compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God 
in him? (1 John iii, 17.) 

'Xcept your righteousness shall exceed the right- 
eousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no 
case enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matt, 
v, 20.) 

Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
(2 Cor. viii, 9.) 

Zion that bringest good tidings. (Isa. xl, 9.) 



196 Gifts. 



BIBLE RULKS FOR GIVING. 

Question. What did the Lord Jesus say about 
giving? 

Answer. It is more blessed to give than to re- 
ceive. (Acts xx, 35.) 

Q. What kind of a giver does God love? 

A. God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. ix, 7.) 

Q. How have we, received, and how should we 
give? 

A. Freely ye have received, freely give. (Matt. 
x, 8.) 

Q. How much should we give? 

A. Thou shalt give unto the Lord thy God ac- 
cording as the Lord thy God hath blessed thee. 
(Deut. xvi, 10.) 

Q. What is the least that we should give? 

A. Of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely 
give the tenth unto thee. (Gen. xxv, 22.) 

Q. How are our gifts accepted ? 

A. If there be first a willing mind, it is accepted 
according to that a man hath, and not according to 
that he hath not. (2 Cor. viii, 12.) 

Q. How should we honor the Lord? 

A. Honor the Lord with thy substance, and 
with the first fruits of thine increase. (Prov. 
iii,9.) 

Q. What promise does God make to such? 

A. So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and 



Gifts. 197 

thy presses shall burst out with new wine. (Prov. 
iii, 10.) 

Q. What is said of him that pities the poor? 

A. He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth unto 
the Lord; and that which he hath given will he pay 
him again. (Prov. xix, 17.) 

Q. How shall we give? 

A. Every man according as he purposeth in his 
heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of neces- 
sity; for God loveth a cheerful giver. (2 Cor. 
ix, 7.) 

Q. From whom does God accept offerings? 

A. Of every man that giveth it willingly, 
w 7 ith his heart, ye shall take my offering. (Ex. 
xxv, 2.) 

Q. What promise is given to those who consider 
the poor? 

A. Blessed is he that considereth the poor; the 
Lord will deliver him in time of trouble. (Psalm 
xli, 1.) 

Q. What measure shall be given to those who 
give liberally? 

A. Give, and it shall be given unto you; good 
measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and 
running over, shall men give into your bosom. For 
with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall 
be measured to you again. (Luke vi, 38.) 

Q. What command does God give about the 
poor ? 

A. Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy 



198 Gifts. 

♦ 

brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy in thy land. 
(Deut. xv, 11.) 

Q. What about the first fruits? 

A. The first of the first fruits of thy land thou 
shalt bring into the house of the Lord thy God. 
(Ex. xxiii, 19.) —Mrs. W. E. Knox. 



CONCLUSION. 



Eloquently Dr. Judson Smith writes in the Mis- 
sionary Herald: "From Africa's teeming tribes, 
from India's perishing multitudes, from China's 
mighty millions, from Japan's throbbing life, from 
every soul among the thousand millions that know 
not God, the cry of despair — its inarticulate cry for 
help — goes up. This weary world, in all its conti- 
nents, with all its nations, wants to know more of 
Christ's message, and of that love which stoops from 
heaven to cleanse sin and chase away sorrow. China 
has no sorrow that his message can not cure; India 
has no problem it can not solve ; Japan, no question 
it can not answer; Africa, no darkness it can not 
dispel. The cry of the pagan world for help has 
resounded in every generation since history began.* 
It ascends — a pleading, pathetic cry — resistless in its 
very helplessness. No Christian heart can refuse to 
hear it; and no Christian heart can hear it and re- 
frain from prayer and pity. If we love Him, we 
shall go in person, or by our gifts, to every land 
and city and home whither his feet are moving, 
with him to plead and pray and win to life." 

"On the Ganges one night," said a missionary, 
"I saw a Hindu pushing a number of little bam- 

199 



200 Conclusion. 

boo boats out on the water, each with a little light 
in it, and I asked him what they were for. ' 0/ 
he replied, ' they are each for a relative who has 
died, that he may have some light in that dark 
world he has gone to. This one is my light. We 
have all got to go, and so we push these lights out 
on the river that we may have a little light 
beyond.'" 

God has given each of us a little light, and he 
means that we shall put it out, in our little earthen 
vessels, all over the sea of life, to show others the 
path that leads to him. 

A touching story comes from Madagascar. 
The, people of a place named Tankay, who had 
never received instruction in Christian things, but 
had simply heard the word "praying," and knew 
that people who did that met together, agreed 
among themselves to meet in one place. No one 
of their number was able to read or tell anything 
about the gospel. They had bought a New Testa- 
ment in Imerina ; but that lay unopened, since no 
one could read it. On Sunday they met in one 
house, and placed the Testament in their midst. 
No one could read, no one could sing or pray; and 
so they sat for a time in silence. When all were 
assembled, one of the chief men stood up, and 
asked: "Have all come from the north?" "Ay," 
answered they all. " Have all come from the 



Conclusion. 201 

south?" "Ay." And so on from the east and 
the west. "Then let us break up, for we have all 
done our duty," said the chief; "but be sure and 
come early next Sunday." 

It has passed into a saying in Madagascar— to 
describe assemblies in which there is no teacher, but 
where the people meet for religious service like the 
worship of the Tankay people — "Let us go home, 
for we have all done our duty." These men, grop- 
ing so pitifully in the dark, may have done their 
duty. What of ours to them? 

"Missionary," said a savage, stalwart-looking 
Indian, "gray hairs here, and grandchildren in the 
wigwam, tell me that I am getting to be an old 
man; and yet I never before heard such things as 
you have told us to-day. I am so glad I did not 
die before I heard this wonderful story. Yet I am 
getting old. Gray hairs here, and grandchildren 
yonder, tell the story. Stay as long as you can, 
Missionary; tell us much of these things; and when 
you have to go away, come back soon; for I have 
grandchildren, and I have gray hairs, and may not 
live many winters more." 

He turned as though he would go back to his 
place, and sit down; but he only w r ent a step or two 
ere he turned round, and faced me, and said: 

"Missionary, may I say more?" 

"Talk on," I said; "I am here now to listen." 



202 Conclusion. 

"You said, just now, * Notawenan ' " ("Our 
Father"). 

"Yes," I said, "I did say, 'Our Father.'" 

"That is very new and sweet to us," he said. 
"We never thought of the Great Spirit as Father. 
We heard him in the thunder, and saw him in the 
lightning and tempest and blizzard, and we were 
afraid. So, when you tell us of the Great Spirit as 
Father — that is very beautiful to us." 

Hesitating a moment, he stood there, a wild, 
picturesque Indian; yet my heart had strangely 
gone out in loving interest and sympathy to him. 
Lifting up his eyes to mine again, he said: 

"May I say more?" 

"Yes," I answered; "say on." 

"You say, ' JVb-tawenan ' (" Our Father"). He 
is your Father?" 

"Yes, he is my Father." 

Then he said, while his eyes and voice yearned 
for the answer : 

"Does it mean he is my Father — poor Indian's 
Father?" 

"Yes, O yes!" I exclaimed; "he is your 
Father, too." 

"Your Father — Missionary's Father — and In- 
dian's Father, too?" he repeated. 

"Yes, that is true," I answered. 

"Then we are brothers?" he almost shouted out. 

"Yes, we are brothers," I replied. 

The excitement in the audience had become 



Conclusion. 203 

something wonderful. When our conversation with 
the old man had reached this point, and in such an 
unexpected and yet dramatic manner had so clearly 
brought out, not only the Fatherhood of God, but 
the oneness of the human family, the people could 
hardly restrain their expressions of delight. 

The old man, however, had not yet finished ; 
and so, quietly restraining the most demonstrative 
ones, he again turned to me, and said : 

"May I say more?" 

11 Yes, say on ; say all that is in your heart." 

Never can I forget his last question. It is the 
question that millions of weary, longing souls, dis- 
satisfied with their false religions, are asking: 

"Missionary, I do not want to be rude, but why 
has my white brother been so long time in coming 
with that Great Book and its wonderful story?" 

■ — Egerton K. Young. 






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